BV  660  .H6  1869 
Hoppin,  J.  M.  1820-1906 
The  office  and  work  of  the 
Christian  ministry 


THE 


OFFICE  AND  WORK 


OF    THE 


CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 


BY 


JAMES    M.^HOPPIN, 

PBOFESSOR  OF  HOMILETICS  AND  PASTORAL  THEOLOGY 
IN  TALE  COLLEGE. 


jN'ew  Tokk: 
SHELDON    AND    COMPANY, 

498  &  500   BROADWAY. 

1869. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1869,  by 

SHELDON    AND   COMPANY, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


Stereotyped  at  the  Boston  Stereotype  Foundry, 
No.  19  Spring  Lane. 


PREFACE. 


Truth,  born  of  God,  does  not  change ;  but  the  forms 
in  which  it  is  apprehended,  and  its  modes  of  influencing 
the  mind,  are  continually  undergoing  development.  The 
old  gospel  contains  many  new  systems  of  theology,  and  it 
is  capable  of  producing  many  new  methods  of  preaching. 

The  human  method  of  presenting  divine  truth  so  that  it 
may  be  received  to  the  welfare  of  the  soul,  must  be  adapt- 
ed to  the  soul,  and  to  the  soul  of  an  age.  Preaching  is  a 
progressive  art,  and  in  this  aspect  it  is  worthy  of  pro- 
found study.  Preaching  has  not  lost  its  power  (as  some 
assert)  over  the  human  mind,  any  more  than  the  gospel 
has  lost  its  power, — for  truth  always  demands  an  inter- 
preter, and  the  soul  always  yearns  for  a  teacher  in  divme 
things  ;  but  there  are  times,  when,  from  inexplicable  causes, 
preaching  passes  through  new  phases  and  modifications, 
and  in  that  process  of  transition  its  power  is  obscured. 
The  present  is  such  a  period.  This  is  confessedly  an  un- 
settled age  :  theories  of  society,  education,  and  science  are 
evolved  and  tested  with  astonishmg  rapidity ;  and  it  would 
be  indeed  strange  if  preaching  did  not  feel  the  influence 
of  the  breatli  that  has  come  over  the  intellectual  world. 

(iii) 


IV  PREFACE. 

Much  that  is  merely  extrinsic  and  conventional  must  dis- 
appear; but  the  free  thought  and  philosophic  culture  of 
the  day  will,  in  the  end,  pass  into,  instead  of  dimin- 
ishing, the  power  of  preaching,  and  Christianity  will  work 
in  and  throuo:h  them  for  its  own  his/her  ends. 

The  preacher  cannot  hope  to  lead  and  guide  minds  if  he 
does  in  no  manner  comprehend  the  wants  of  an  advancing 
age,  like  the  present,  which  is  one  of  real  interest,  though 
of  fearless  inquiry,  in  theological  questions,  and  of  the  bold 
reconstruction  of  religious  philosophies.  The  preacher  can 
no  longer  successfully  deal  in  dull  learning  and  trite  ideas, 
without  fresh  thought,  original  and  conscientious  exegesis, 
noble  and  true  literary  form,  and,  above  all,  practical  ear- 
nestness and  spiritual  life.  Not  that  the  want  of  these  has. 
characterized  the  past  age,  but  that  the  time  has  come 
when  their  absence  is  a  marked  deficiency. 

Still,  too  much  ought  not  to  be  made  of  the  intellectual 
aspects  of  the  subject,  important  as  they  are ;  for,  of  the 
two  classes  into  which  Pascal  divided  preachers,  —  into  those 
who  belong  to  the  order  of  intellect,  and  those  who  belong 
to  the  order  of  love,  —  the  greatest  preachers,  as  Pascal 
thought  (among  whom  he  counted  Augustine),  have  ever 
been  of  the  latter  class  ;  for  to  love  God  is  the  only  way  to 
know  him  and  to  teach  him.  Truly,  for  one  to  be  a  great 
preacher,  he  must  have  a  deep  and  pervading  enthusiasm ; 
he  must  have  an  inward  harmony  with  the  object  which 
interested  the  heart  of  Christ,  and  in  which  every  selfish 
feeling  is  absorbed  and  lost.  The  main  impulse  of  the 
preacher  must  be  from  within,  —  from  sanctified  afiections, 
from  the  real  sympathy  of  his  soul  with  God.     Thought 


PREFACE.  V 

and  expression  —  the  profoundest  thought  and  the  most  fit 
expression  —  are  of  little  moment,  if  there  is  not  the  true, 
glowing  heart  behind  them.  Men,  indeed,  for  the  service 
of  the  Christian  ministry,  may  be  dwarfed  by  becoming 
accomplished  scholars  and  polished  orators,  if  they  are  not 
also  rendered  large-hearted,  courageous,  spiritual,  conse- 
crated men. 

While  I  believe  that  divine  truth  should  be  presented  to 
men's  minds  in  fresh,  powerful,  and  beautiful  forms,  — no 
less  so  than  should  scientific  and  literary  truth,  —  there  are, 
nevertheless,  certain  principles  of  preaching  which  do  not 
vary,  and  which  are  always  true,  for  "the  church  must  light 
its  candle  at  the  old  lamp  ; "  and  an  endeavor  has  been  made 
in  the  following  pages  to  set  forth  some  of  those  true  and 
essential  principles. 

This  volume  is  chiefly  designed  as  a  text-booh  in  Homi- 
letics  and  Pastoral  Theology,  for  those  who  are  in  a  regu- 
lar course  of  training  for  the  ministry  of  the  gospel.  While 
I  hope  that  pastors  may  find  in  it  something  of  value 
to  themselves,  it  is  mainly  intended  to  be  used  by  the- 
ological students  in  the  class-room,  for  the  purpose  of 
recitation ;  and  that  will  account  for  the  broken-up  and 
analytical  style  of  the  book,  that  being  necessitated  by  the 
treatment  in  condensed,  rather  than  expanded,  forms  of 
discussion  of  so  many  and  varied  themes.  That  will  also 
explain  the  formal  arrangement  of  the  book ;  for  the  efibrt 
has  been,  not  so  much  to  depart  from  the  ordinary  plan,  as 
to  produce  a  good  text-book  of  judicious  rules ;  not  so 
much  to  express  private  thoughts  and  opinions,  as  to  state 
general  and  well-grounded  principles. 


Vi  PREFACE. 

I  have  always  regarded  it  as  a  happy  circumstance,  that 
I  enjoyed  the  teachings  of  Professor  Park,  of  Andover,  in 
the  department  of  Homiletics ;  and  it  gives  me  pleasure 
to  acknowledge  the  debt  of  gratitude  I  owe  him  for  first 
awakening  in  me  a  lively  interest  in  that  study. 

I  have  had  another  aim  in  publishing  this  book;  and 
that  is,  to  free  myself  in  some  measure  from  the  routine  of 
lecturing,  and  to  secure  time  for  that  direct,  familiar,  and 
informal  method  of  instruction  which  is  peculiarly  needed 
in  treating  the  subject  of  preaching  with  beginners ;  and, 
indeed,  I  have  meditated  upon  some  new  methods  of  teach- 
ing homiletics,  which  promise  at  least  (though  the  result 
may  not  prove  it)  to  be  of  a  more  quickening  and  truly 
philosophical  nature  than  those  sometimes  pursued ;  but,  at 
the  same  time,  I  fully  recognize  the  necessity  of  a  system- 
atic course  of  training  in  this  important  department.  "  And 
so  in  art  and  religion.  First  in  point  of  time,  submit  to 
rules;  but  first  in  point  of  importance,  —  the  grand  aim, 
indeed,  of  all  rules,  —  rise  through  them  to  the  spirit  and 
meaning  of  them.  Write  that  upon  the  heart  and  be  free  ; 
then  you  can  use  the  maxim,  not  like  a  pedant,  but  like  an 
artist,  —  not  like  a  Pharisee,  but  like  a  Christian." 

What  is  contained  in  the  following  pages  was  composed 
primarily  for  the  use  of  a  Congregational  theological  school ; 
but  while  by  education  and  choice  a  believer  and  worship- 
per in  the  simple  way  of  our  New  England  fathers,  I  am 
every  day  less  and  less  of  a  sectarian.  Though,  happily,  the 
true  tendency  of  the  times  is  to  the  real  unity  of  all  Chris- 
tians and  Christian  churches,  yet  not  because  of  this  popu- 
lar current  (which  is  as  apt  to  be  false  as  true) ,  but  from 


PREFACE.  Vn 

deeply  cherished  convictions  on  this  subject,  I  grow  ever 
more  inclined  to  honor  the  name  of  Christian  above  that 
of  every  other  earthly  name ;  and  to  hold  the  one  "  holy 
catholic  church"  above  any  particular  portion  of  it,  how- 
ever loved  and  deserving  of  love ;  and  I  hope,  therefore, 
that  nothing  of  a  narrow  spirit  will  be  found  in  these 
pages,  even  in  regard  to  the  views  of  other  denominations 
of  Christians  where  I  honestly  differ  from  them.  May  the 
time  be  hastened  when  each  shall  impart  to  the  other  freely 
of  whatever  gift  or  portion  of  truth  may  be  committed 
to  its  keeping,  and  when  the  Holy  Spirit  may  ^''gather 
together  in  one  all  things  in  Christ,  both  which  are  in  heaven 
and  which  are  on  earth" 

In  the  second  part  of  the  book,  in  that  which  treats  of 
Pastoral  Theology,  I  have  not  intended  to  dictate  what 
a  pastor  should  be,  but  only  to  offer  friendly  suggestion 
and  advice  to  young  men ;  thinking  that,  though  this  sub- 
ject is  to  a  great  extent  a  matter  of  personal  experi- 
ence, much  may  be  done  to  prepare  candidates  for  the 
ministry  for  their  pastoral  work.  That  kind  of  prepara- 
tion has  been,  perhaps,  too  much  neglected  heretofore  in 
our  seminaries,  which  have  laid  themselves  'open  to  the 
charge  of  rearing  scholars  (or  attempting  to  do  so)  rather 
than  pastors  ;  but  it  is  the  ])astoral  worli,  which  is  the  true 
test  of  ministerial  character.  I  have  endeavored  to  set 
forth  a  high  ideal  of  this  character  —  that  though  no  aureole 
surrounds  the  head  of  the  true  Christian  pastor  and  preacher, 
as  in  old  pictures,  yet  that  sanctity  and  truth  should  crown 
his  life  with  a  heavenly  light ;  and  that  to  the  work  of  saving 
souls  from  the  power  of  sin,  through  the  preaching  of  the 


Till  PREFACE. 

Cross,  the  rarest  faculties  of  mind,  heart,  and  spirit  may  be 
devoted.  If  the  counsels  herein  contained  shall  in  the 
slightest  degree  tend  to  produce  those  strong,  hardy,  cross- 
bearing,  cheerful,  hopeful,  wise,  loving,  and  single-minded 
pastors,  who  are  willing  to  labor  among  the  poor  as  well  as 
among  the  rich  and  the  educated,  who  are  willing  to  go 
anywhere,  and  to  do  anything  which  is  required  for  the 
highest  good  of  men,  —  such  pastors,  in  fine,  as  Christ 
would  bless  as  the  spiritual  guides  of  his  people  into  a 
nobler  life  in  Him,  that  result  would  be  the  greatest  reward 
I  could  ask. 

New  Haven,  Cokk.,  May,  1869. 


CONTENTS. 


INTEODUCTION. 

Pagb 
§  1.    Greatness  of  the  Work  of  the  Ministry 1 


PREACHIl^G. 

PART   FIRST. 

PREACHING  SPECIALLY  CONSIDERED. 

FIEST    DIVISION. 

The  History  and  Art  of  Preaching. 

§  2.     Definition  of  Preaching. 23 

§  3.     History  of  Preaching.     Its  governing  Law.         .        .         .        .  25 

Preacliing  in  the  Old  Testament 26 

Of  the  Apostolic  Church. 27 

Of  the  First  Five  Centuries 30 

Of  Chrysostom  and  Augustine 35 

From  the  Sixth  Century  to  the  Eeformation.        .        .         .40 

Of  Luther  and  the  Reformation 42 

Of  Germany  and  France 45 

Of  England 47 

Of  New  England  and  America 61 

§  4.     The  Object  and  Design  of  Preaching. 56 

§  5.     Difficulties  of  Preaching. 69 

§  6.     Faults  of  Preaching 61 

§  7.     Method  of  composing  a  Sermon 65 


X  CONTENTS. 

§  8.     Classification  of  Sermons.    Memoriter  Preaching.  .        .  70 

Written  Sermons »  72 

Extempore  Sermons 77 

§  9.    Classification  of  Sermons,  continued 90 


SECOND    DIVISION. 

The  Analysis  of  a  Sermon. 

§  10.    Parts  of  a  Sermon 93 

§  11.    The  Text 94 

Objections  to  the  Use  of  Texts. 95 

Advantages  of  the  Use  of  Texts 98 

Principles  in  the  Choice  of  Texts 100 

§  12.     The  Introduction 118 

Definition  of  the  Introduction. 121 

I           Uses  of  the  Introduction 122 

Qualities  of  the  Introduction 125 

§  13.     The  Explanation 132 

Sources  of  the  Explanation 136 

Qualities  of  the  Explanation. 140 

§  14,     The  Proposition 143 

Definition  of  the  Proposition  of  a  Sermon 144 

Substance  and  Matter  of  the  Proposition.          ....  147 

Structure  and  Qualities  of  the  Proposition 148 

§  15.     The  Division 151 

Definition  of  the  Divisions  of  a  Sermon 153 

Sources  and  Qualities  of  Divisions 165 

Composition  of  Divisions 158 

§  16.     The  Development 160 

Expository  Development 161 

Illustrative  Development.          . 164 

Argumentative  Development 165 

Persuasive  Development. 170 

Qualities  of  the  Development 174 

§  17.     The  Conclusion 178 

Eecapitulation .  180 

Applicatory  Remarks  and  Inferences.       .        .        ...        .  181 

Appeal  to  the  Feelings 185 


CONTENTS.  XI 

PART    SECOND. 

RHETORIC  APPLIED  TO    PREACHING. 

FIRST    DIVISION. 
Genekal  Principles  of  Bhetobic. 

§18.     Definition  of  Rhetoric.         .        . 191 

Ancient  Ideas  of  Rhetoric 192 

Modern  Ideas  of  Rhetoric 195 

§  19.     Uses  and  Sources  of  Rhetoric. 202 

§  20.     Use  of  Reasoning  to  the  Preacher. 212 

§  21.     The  Study  of  Language 228 

English  Literature .        .  235 

English  Philology 237 

§  22.     Delivery 245 

§  23.     Taste  in  Preaching 256 

The  Use  of  the  Imagination 264 

Principles  of  Taste  in  Preaching. 266 

SECOND    DIVISION. 

Invention  and  Style. 

§  24.    Invention.    Sources  of  Invention 271 

Qualities  of  the  True  Subject 274 

Christian  Doctrine 281 

Christian  Morality 285 

Christian  Experience. 290 

§26.     Style 291 

The  invariable  Properties  of  Style 292 

The  related  Properties  of  Style.   .        .        .        .        .        .  299 

Purity 306 

Propriety 311 

Precision 312 

Perspicuity 316 

Energy 319 

Elegance 333 


xii  CONTENTS. 


THE    PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

PART  FIRST. 

THE  PASTOKAL  OFFICE  IN  ITSELF  CONSIDERED. 

§  26.     The  Pastoral  Office  founded  in  Nature 341 

§  27.    Divine  Institution  of  Pastoral  Office 348 

'^n6(7Tolog 350 

JlQOcpriTr]g 357 

Ztvv&fiSig 359 

Xaqlafiaza  Ifi&Timv 360 

^AvTiXr^ifjEig,  xv^SQvr^aEig  —  JE'Oayj'eAtaTi^g.       .        .        .  362 

IJoifir^p 367 

^id&axaXog .         .  368 

nqea^iTEQog. 370 

'Enlaxonog 371 

Other  Titles  of  the  Ministry 374 

§  28.    The  Idea  of  the  Pastoral  Office 377 

§  29.     The  Model  of  the  Pastor 385 

§  30.     The  Call  to  the  Ministry 390 

§  31.     Ordination 40G 

§  32.    The  Trials  and  Rewards  of  the  Pastor 410 


PART    SECOND. 

THE  PASTOR  AS  A  MAN. 

§  33.     Spiritual  Qualifications 423 

§  34.     Intellectual  Culture 435 

Value  of  Scholarly  Culture 437 

Nature  of  Ministerial  Study. 441 

Method  of  Study 444 

§  35.    Moral  Culture 451 


CONTENTS.  Xm 

PART    THIRD. 

THE  PASTOR  IN  HIS  RELATIONS  TO  SOCIETY. 

§  36.    Domestic  and  Social  Eelations ^  .        .    459 

§  37.    Public  Eelations. 476 


PART    FOURTH. 

THE  PASTOR  IN  HIS  RELATIONS  TO  THE  CHURCH. 

FIRST    DIVISION. 

Public  Worship. 

§  38.    Theory  and  Form  of  Public  Worship 482 

§  39.     The  Sanctuary 499 

§  40.     Church  Music 511 

§  41.     Conducting  a  Prayer  Meeting. 519 

§  42.     Marriage  and  Burial 527 

SECOND    DIVISION. 

The  Care  op  Souls. 

§  43.    Qualifications  for  the  Care  of  Souls 631 

§  44.     Pastoral  Visiting 542 

§  45.     Care  of  the  Sick  and  Afflicted 554 

§  46.     The  Treatment  of  different  Classes 665 

The  Unbelieving  and  Impenitent. ......  665 

The  Inquirer 670 

The  Young  Convert.      ........  687 

§47.    Pastoral  Oversight  of  the  Church 691 

Church  Membership.     .         . 691 

Church  Discipline 696 

Christian  Nurture 699 

Catechetics 601 

The  Church's  Benevolent  Activity. 602 

Almsgiving.        ........••  602 

Missions 604 

INDEX.         . .        •        -611 


INTRODUCTION". 


§  1.     Greatness  of  tJie  Work. 

The.  apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  who  was  not  accustomed  to 
glory,  excepting  in  the  Lord,  gloried  in  his  ministry.  In 
that  ministry  of  Christ  he  found  his  divine  vocation  ;  his 
whole  being  rejoiced  in  it ;  he  had  for  it  a  holy  enthusi- 
asm ;  he  gave  his  life  freely  to  it,  and  he  would  have  given 
a  thousand  lives. 

Before  treating  of  the  office  of  the  ministry  and  the 
methods  of  preaching,  let  us  consider  briefly  the  real 
greatness  of  this  work.  It  may  indeed  be  said  that  these 
thoughts  are  obvious  —  that  none  are  more  so ;  yet  it  is 
good  to  re-inform  and  refill  our  minds  with  them,  and  thus 
awaken  in  ourselves  new  earnestness  and  zeal. 

1.  The  greatness  of  the  preacher's  work  is  seen  in  that 
he  is  an  ambassador  of  God  to  man. 

If  the  New  Testament  contains  a  rule  of  faith  and  con- 
duct for  men,  essential  for  their  salvation,  we  should  expect 
to  find  in  the  same  record  that  contains  the  faith,  the  ap- 
pointed means  of  its  ministration. 

We  could  not  conceive  of  God's  giving  a  revelation  of 
such  import  to  men  without  at  the  same  time  distinctly 
1  (1) 


2  INTRODUCTION. 

ordaining  the  best  method  of  making  it  known  to  them. 
He  wonld  not  leave  this  to  loose,  uncertain  methods.  If 
uo  regular  divine  agency  had  been  appointed  to  publish 
the  message  of  reconciliation  between  God  and  man,  we 
should  be  apt  to  think  that  God  is  not  in  earnest  in  this ; 
or,  that  it  is  no  true  revelation.  If  there  is  a  word  of 
jjeacc  from  the  higher  government  to  our  souls,  there  must 
be  also  a  permanent  embassy  of  peace,  established  in  the 
foreign  government  of  an  alienated  world.  God  could 
have  converted  the  world  by  the  preaching  of  Christ ;  he 
could  have  converted  it  by  a  pure  act  of  power ;  but  why 
is  it  that  twenty  centuries  have  passed,  and  but  a  fraction 
of  the  earth  is  Christian?  Is  it  not  because  God  sees  fit 
to  commit  this  work  to  men  —  to  involve  human  effort, 
trial,  sympathy,  responsibility,  in  this  circle  of  human 
redemption? 

We  clearly  recognize  the  fact  that  all  Christians  are  in- 
volved in  this  circle  of  responsibility  to  win  souls  to 
Christ,  and  M^e  claim  for  the  ministry  no  exclusive  right 
to  teach  or  to  work.  We  do  not  forget  for  a  moment  that 
there  is  no  essential  distinction  between  the  people  and 
the  preacher  in  point  of  responsibility.  The  preacher  is 
but  one  of  the  people,  as  a  captain  is  but  one  of  an  army, 
whom  the  army  has  chosen  out  of  its  own  body  to  perform 
a  certain  duty.  All  who  love  Christ  are  called  to  the  work 
of  making  him  known  ;  and  this  universal  duty  of  all  Chris- 
tians is  now  better  understood  ;  or,  rather,  the  church  is 
returning  to  this  primitive  idea  of  Christianity.  God  speed 
the  progress  of  this  idea,  until  all  the  energy  and  working 
talent  of  the  church,  of  whatever  kind,  shall  be  developed. 
We  are  no  sticklers  for  ministerial  prerogative  in  doing 
good.  The  minister  has  no  monopoly  in  preaching,  or 
praying,  or  worldng.  The  church  of  God  is  the  ^;eqp?e 
of  God,  and  not  the  ministry.  Still,  there  is  a  ministry 
of  the  gospel,  and  it  has  a  great  work  to  do,  which  other 
men  in  their  worldly  occupations  and  business  cannot  do 


§   1.      GREATNESS    OF  THE   WORK.  3 

SO  well.  It  is  the  entire  consecration  of  some  to  the  high- 
est good  of  others  and  of  all. 

Augustine  says  that  this  ministry  was  not  given  to  angels, 
because  then  "human  nature  would  have  been  degraded. 
It  would  have  been  degraded  had  it  seemed  as  if  God 
would  not  communicate  his  word  by  man  to  man.  The 
love  which  binds  mankind  in  the  bond  of  unity  would  have 
no  means  of  fusing  dispositions,  so  to  speak,  together,  and 
placing  them  in  communion  with  each  other,  if  men  were 
not  to  be  taught  by  men." 

Yet  Augustine  himself  had  so  profound  a  conception  of 
the  greatness  and  responsibility  of  this  work,  that  when 
the  eyes  of  the  Christian  world  were  fastened  on  him,  he 
would  go  to  no  assembly  or  council  which  could  ordain 
him  a  minister ;  and  at  last,  when  almost  by  accident  he 
was  chosen  to  a  small  spiritual  charge,  he  received  it  with 
expressions  of  great  affliction,  so  that  his  opposers  said  he 
was  troubled  because  so  small  a  place  had  been  given  him.^ 
In  like  manner,  Chrysostom,  at  the  age  of  twenty-six,  could 
not  possibly  be  persuaded  to  take  up  the  public  service  of 
the  ministry,  because  he  felt  his  unfitness  for  it.~ 

God,  in  other  things  also,  works  b}^  secondary  agencies 
—  himself  the  originating  power  of  all  things,  j^et  the  only 
invisible  One.  He  loves  to  hide  himself  in  his  instrumen- 
talities, and  to  manifest  himself  through  them.  He  who 
made  the  light  before  he  collected  it  into  the  sun,  and  hung 
that  in  the  heavens  to  be  the  steady  reservoir  and  distribu- 
ter of  the  light,  seems  to  prefer,  for  his  own  wise  ends, 
this  instrumental  method  of  working ;  and  we  should  there- 
fore expect,  in  the  revelation  of  a  new  Faith  from  the  skies, 
the  simultaneous  ordaining  of  special  agencies  to  make 
known  this  new  message  of  truth  and  life. 

We  actually  do  find  in  the  Scriptures  of  God's  revealed 


'  Aug.  Confessions,  B.  XI.     See  also  Epist.  XXL,  ad  Valerium. 
*  Neander's  Chrysostom,  Eng.  ed.,  p.  22. 


4  IXTRODUCTION. 

will,  this  work  of  making  known  his  Avorcl  committed  to 
the  human  instrument.  As  Christ  gave  the  bread  to  his 
disciples  to  be  distributed  to  the  famishing  multitudes,  so 
God  distributes  the  bread  of  life  to  men  through  the  hands 
of  his  believing  children  and  ministers  ;  they  are  not  priests, 
but  ministers;  they  are  not  mediators,  but  simply  servants. 
Acts  20:  28.  ^' Take  1  teed  therefore  to  yourselves,  and  to 
all  the  flock  over  the  ivhich  the  Holy  S])irit  hath  made  you 
overseers y  to  feed  the  church  of  God."  2  Cor.  5  :  18.  "And 
all  things  are  of  God,  who  hath  reconciled  us  to  himself  by 
Jesus  Christ,  and  hath  given  us  the  ministry  of  reconcilia- 
tion.'" Col.  4:  17.  ^'And  say  to  Archipj)us,  Take  heed  to 
the  ministry  wltich  thou  hast  received  in  the  Lord,  that  thou 
fulfil  it.'''  Tit.  1  :  3.  '^ But  hath  in  due  time  manifested 
his  word  through  preaching ,  which  is  committed  unto  me 
according  to  the  commandment  of  God  our  Savior."  The 
Gospel  is  a  word,  even  as  Christ  is  the  Word.  He  was  the 
perfect  expression  of  God.  In  his  preaching,  character, 
life,  and  death,  he  spoke  the  word  of  God ;  and  he  com- 
missions his  preachers  to  continue  to  speak  this  word.  One 
of  the  most  extraordinary  passages  in  the  Bible,  fitted  to 
fill  every  Christian  preacher's  mind  with  awe,  is  that  con- 
tained in  2  Cor.  5  :  20,  "Now  then  ice  are  ambassadors 
for  Christ,  as  though  God  did  beseech  you  by  us;  we  pray 
you,  in  Christ's  stead,  be  ye  reconciled  to  God.''^  True 
preachers  (and  of  these  we  speak)  are  here  made  to  stand 
in  loco  Christi;  they  not  only  testify  of  Christ,  but  they  rep- 
resent him  ;  they  continue  his  work  in  his  spirit  and  power ; 
they  arc  clothed  in  his  representative  authority.  As  minis- 
ters of  Christ,  they  exhibit  the  love  both  of  God  and  of 
man.  In  the  gospel  which  they  announce,  setting  forth  the 
Way  of  union  by  faith,  and  bringing  God  into  sinful  human- 
ity, they  sustain  and  carr}'^  on  the  blessed  "ministry  of  recon- 
ciliation." And  so  long  as  they  truly  love  God  and  man, 
God  speaks  purely  and  powerfully  through  them  to  men  ; 
they  persuade  men  to  love  God,  even  as  they  love  him  ; 


§  1.       GREATNESS   OF   THE   WOEK.  5 

they  give  God's  invitations  from  hearts  stirred  by  his  love ; 
they  hold  forth  the  means  of  a  divine  life ;  they  stand,  as 
does  the  cross  they  preach,  half  in  the  light  of  heaven,  and 
half  of  earth;  they  are,  not  physically,  nor  officially,  but 
morally,  instruments  of  converting  men  to  God ;  they  do 
not  produce  conversion,  but  they  are  the  means  to  its  pro- 
duction ;  they  use  the  truth  to  produce  it,  taking  the  Bible 
out  of  the  dead  letter,  and  making  it  a  living  word  to  men. 

While  they  thus  speak  his  word,  and  manifest  his  spirit 
and  his  love,  they  are  the  living  ambassadors  of  God  as 
truly  as  were  Elijah  and  Elisha,  Paul  and  John ;  and  no 
man  may  despise  them,  for  they  speak  with  a  divine  author- 
ity—  they  speak  the  word  of  God  to  man.  ^^ If  any  man 
speak,  let  him  speah  as  the  oracles  of  God.''''  God  said  to 
an  ancient  preacher,  "^e  not  afraid  of  their  faces;  for 
I  am  with  thee,  to  deliver  thee,  saith  the  Lord.  Thou, 
therefore,  gird  up  thy  loins,  and  arise,  and  speak  unto 
them  all  that  I  command  thee:  be  not  dismayed  at  their 
faces.''  This  sense  of  his  divine  commission  is  indeed  the 
preacher's  strength.  He  centres  himself  in  God.  He 
speaks  out  of  the  consciousness  of  God's  choice  of  him, 
and  of  God's  will  expressed  through  him ;  and  here  is  the 
source  of  his  eloquence.  The  moment  he  loses  this  divine 
presence,  and  is  conscious  that  he  is  delivering  his  own 
message,  that  he  is  speaking  a  human  word,  he  becomes 
an  ordinary  man,  an  "earthen  vessel"  indeed. 

This  whole  subject  of  the  divine  appointment  of  the  niin- 
istry  will  be  treated  more  thoroughly  when  we  come  to 
speak  of  the  Pastoral  Office ;  but  it  is  a  good  opportunity 
here,  though  not  rightly  belonging  to  the  introduction,  to 
say  a  single  word  on  this  mooted  point  of  the  preacher's 
authority,  as  one  who  speaks  the  word  of  God.  As  a 
practical  matter,  young  preachers  find  this  trouble  —  that 
they  have  the  feeling  often  that  many  in  their  audience  do 
not  receive  the  Bible  Avith  the  reverent  faith  that  they  do 
themselves ;  and  they  think,  therefore,  that  they  cannot, 
1* 


6  INTRODUCTIOX. 

like  the  lawyer  at  the  bar,  poiut  them  to  the  word  of  God 
as  filial  authority,  saying,  ''  This  is  the  law  on  the  subject, 
this  is  the  statute,  this  settles  the  question."  In  answer  to 
this  we  would  say  that  the  preacher  has  a  right,  or,  to  put 
it  stronger,  is  compelled,  to  take  for  granted  two  things. 
First,  that  the  Bible  is  the  word  of  God,  and  therefore  is 
final  in  its  authority.  This  he  must  do  to  have  a  right  to 
preach  at  all ;  here  is  his  own  commission.  Christianity 
is,  above  all,  a  word,  the  word  of  God.  He  should 
preach  as  if  he  believed  this ;  and  here  he  finds  his  author- 
ity for  what  he  says,  and  here  is  his  standing-point  to  heave 
the  minds  of  men  from  their  deep-rooted  sinfulness  and 
sensuality.  And  he  has  to  assume,  secondly,  that  the  audi- 
ence before  him  do  also  believe  that  the  Bible  is  the  word 
of  God,  and  that  they  may  be  spoken  and  appealed  to 
as  those  who  believe  this.  If  the  audience  is  composed 
of  professed  believers,  as  at  the  communion  table,  the 
difficulty  vanishes.  If  the  audience  is  a  common  mixed 
one,  composed  of  believers  and  unbelievers,  still  the  un- 
believing portion  put  themselves  in  the  position  of  believ- 
ers by  coming  to  the  house  of  God  to  hear  the  gospel 
preached.  They  know  that  it  is  the  house  of  God,  where 
the  Bible  is  preached  as  the  word  of  God.  There  are,  in 
any  case,  few  in  our  congregations  on  the  Sabbath  who  do 
not  yield  an  outward  respect  to  the  Bible  as  the  revealed 
word  of  God.  Even  a  sceptical  writer  like  Strauss  con- 
cedes the  historical  value  of  a  great  portion  of  the  Bible, 
and  the  value  also  of  the  religion  which  Christ,  who  he 
believed  actually  did  live,  taught.  At  all  events  there  will 
not,  probably,  be  one  in  the  audience  who  does  not  believe 
in  a  God  ;  and  if  one  does  believe  in  a  God,  he  must  also 
believe  that  God  has  created  him  and  cares  for  him,  and 
that  he  has  somewhere  or  somehow  expressed  this  care  and 
love  for  him.  The  preacher  then  has  a  right  to  assume 
that  the  Bible  is  that  good  word  and  message  of  God  to 
man ;  for  if  it  is  not,  where  can  such  a  word  be  found? 


§   1.       GREATNESS   OF   THE   WORK.  7 

The  apostles,  when  they  preached  to  pure  heathens  and 
infidels,  planted  themselves  on  the  simple  word  of  God, 
and  they  appealed  to  the  primary  laws  of  God  written  in 
the  conscience  to  confirm  what  they  spoke.  It  was  "by 
manifestation  of  the  truth  to  every  man's  conscience  in  the 
sight  of  God"  that  they  preached.  The  autl\ority  of  the 
word  of  God  was  final  with  the  apostles,  while  at  the  same 
time  they  cast  themselves  upon  men's  reason  and  conscious- 
ness to  confirm  the  word  preached.  The  apostles'  preach- 
ing was  thus  both  authoritative  and  persuasive.  "Knowing 
the  terrors  of  the  law,  we  j)ersuade  men."  "Abstain  from 
fleshly  lusts  ivhich  war  against  the  soul:"  here,  while  a 
command  is  uttered,  a  reason  is  also  given ;  and  a  preacher 
may  develop  this  reason  to  any  extent,  and  show  how  inor- 
dinate appetites  injure  the  spiritual  nature.  Times,  it  is 
true,  have  changed,  and  the  authority  of  the  preacher  has 
apparently  diminished ;  other  influences  have  now  come  in 
to  compete  with  the  pulpit ;  and  the  preacher's  faith  and 
patience  are  tried  more  than  formerly  to  sustain  his  heaven- 
delegated  authority ;  but  he  should  plant  himself  the  more 
firmly  on  the  word  of  God.  He  should  awaken  a  deeper 
faith  in  his  people  in  that  word  which  "  endureth  forever,'* 
though  the  human  preacher  soon  vanishes  away.  In  the 
struggle  between  the  authority  of  divine  revelation  and  that 
of  human  consciousness,  while  Christianity  admits  both, 
and  brings  both  to  utter  the  same  thing,  it  founds  its  final 
authority  on  the  will  of  God ;  and  here  the  preacher  should 
stand,  where  Luther  stood,  and  where  the  apostles  stood. 

2.  The  greatness  of  the  preacher's  work  is  seen  from  the 
nature  of  the  truths  with  which  he  deals.  These  truths 
may  be  generally  summed  up  under  the  one  name  of  divin- 
ity. "  And  what  is  divinity,"  says  Eobert  South,  "  but  a 
doctrine  treating  of  the  nature,  attributes,  and  works  of 
the  great  God,  as  he  stands  related  to  rational  creatures, 
and  the  way  how  rational  creatures  may  serve,  worship, 


S  INTRODUCTION. 

and  enjoy  him?  And  if  so,  is  not  the  subject  of  it  the 
greatest,  and  the  design  and  business  of  it  the  noblest,  in 
the  Avorld,  as  being  no  less  than  to  direct  an  immortal  soul 
to  its  endless  and  eternal  felicity  ?  It  has  been  disputed  to 
•which  of  the  intellectual  habits  mentioned  by  Aristotle  it 
most  properly  belongs ;  some  referring  it  to  wisdom,  some 
to  science,  some  to  prudence,  and  some  compounding  it 
of  several  of  them  together ;  but  those  seem  to  speak  most 
to  the  purpose  who  will  not  have  it  formally,  any  one  of 
them,  but  virtually,  and  in  an  eminent,  transcendent  man- 
ner, all.  And  now,  can  we  think  that  a  doctrine  of  that 
depth,  that  height,  and  that  vast  compass,  grasping  within 
it  all  the  perfections  and  dimensions  of  human  science,  does 
not  worthily  claim  all  the  preparations  whereby  the  wit  and 
industry  of  man  can  fit  him  for  it  ?  All  other  sciences  are 
but  handmaids  to  divinity  ;  and  shall  the  handmaid  be  richer 
adorned  and  better  clothed  and  set  off  than  her  mistress? 
In  other  things  the  art  usually  excels  the  matter,  and  the 
ornament  we  bestow  is  better  than  the  subject  we  bestow 
it  upon  ;  but  here  we  are  sure  that  we  have  such  a  subject 
before  us  as  not  only  calls  for,  but  commands,  and  not  only 
commands,  but  deserves  our  application  to  it ;  a  subject  of 
that  native,  that  inherent  worth,  that  it  is  not  capable  of 
any  addition  to  it  from  us,  but  shines  both  through  and 
above  all  the  artificial  lustre  we  can  put  upon  it.  The  study 
of  divinity  is  indeed  difficult,  and  we  are  to  labor  hard  and 
dig  deep  for  it.  But  then  we  dig  in  a  golden  mine,  which 
equally  invites  and  rewards  our  labor."  ^  South  says  again, 
"For  I  reckon  upon  this  as  a  great  truth,  that  there  can  be 
no  endowment  in  the  soul  of  a  man  which  God  himself  is 
the  cause  and  giver  of,  but  may,  even  in  its  highest  and 
choicest  operations,  be  sanctified  and  employed  in  the  work 
of  the  ministry."^     But  let  us  consider  this  more  particu- 

*  South's  Sermons,  Phil,  ed.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  79. 
2  Id.,  p.  70. 


§   1.      GREATNESS   OF   THE   WORK.  9 

larly.  The  high  aud  difficult  nature  of  the  truths  with 
which  the  preacher  deals  appears  in  the  fact  that  they  are 
(a.)  metophysical  truths.  The  preacher's  work  is  neces- 
sarily intellectual ;  he  deals  with  men's  minds  and  rational 
nature  ;  he  must  adapt  the  divine  word  to  the  human  mind  ; 
he  must  know  how  to  interpret  it  according  to  men's  intel- 
lectual nature.  True  preaching  is  addressed  first  to  the 
intellect,  for  men  must  know  the  truth  before  they  can  be 
expected  to  obey  or  love  it.  The  intellect,  conscience, 
affections,  and  will  are  so  blended,  that  they  form  one 
spiritual  nature,  and  we  cannot  tell  where  are  the  lines  of 
separation.  The  importance  to  the  preacher  of  understand- 
ing the  human  mind  is  thus  spoken  of  by  Sir  William 
Hamilton :  "  Theology  is  not  independent  of  philosophy. 
For  as  God  only  exists  for  us  as  we  have  faculties  capable 
of  apprehending  his  existence,  and  of  fulfilling  his  behests, 
nay,  as  the  phenomena  from  which  we  are  warranted  to 
infer  his  being  are  wholly  mental,  the  examination  of  these 
faculties  and  of  these  phenomena  is  consequently  the  pri- 
mary condition  of  every  sound  theology."^  This  must  be 
60.  Hov/  can  the  preacher  approach  the  mind  God  has 
made  with  the  truth  of  which  God  is  the  author,  if  he  has 
no  clear  conception  of  those  mental  laws  which  affect  the 
reception  of  truth,  which  turn  it  to  sweetness  or  bitter- 
ness, to  life  or  death?  How  can  he  reach  the  conscience, 
the  real  man  of  the  heart,  if  he  does  not  comprehend  the 
relations  of  conscience  to  the  faculties  of  knowledge  ?  How 
can  he  influence  the  judgment  or  sway  the  reason,  if  he  is 
totally  untaught,  by  either  education  or  observation,  in  the 
great  principles  of  causality?  Or  how  can  he  move  the 
affections,  if  he  knows  nothing  of  their  proper  place  in  the 
mind,  aud  what  and  where  are  the  true  springs  to  touch? 
Besides,  we  cannot  know  God's  mind  if  we  do  not  under- 
stand our  own.     We  reason  from  our  own  nature  to  God's 

^  Metapliysics,  p.  44. 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

nature.  All  reasoning  upon  strictly  Natural  Theology  dc- 
pencls  upon  the  clear  apprehension  of  metaphysical  axioms, 
and  upon  a  sound  philosophy.  Everything,  in  fact,  in  the 
world  of  mind  is  subservient  to  the  preacher's  work.  He 
works  through  ideas,  reasons,  motives,  penetrating  the 
depths  of  the  mind.  The  first  preachers,  if  they  were 
illiterate  men  at  the  beginning,  became  learned  in  the 
Scriptures,  in  the  human  heart,  in  the  gift  of  tongues,  and 
in  the  incomparable  instructions  and  impartations  of  Christ 
and  his  spirit.  Robert  South  has  a  characteristic  passage 
which  may  apply  here,  in  which  he  vents  his  scorn  against 
unlearned  persons  who  crept  into  the  ministry  during  the 
commonwealth,  some  of  them,  without  doubt,  better  men 
than  himself.  "  Many  rushed  into  the  ministry  as  being  the 
only  calling  they  could  profess  without  serving  an  appren- 
ticeship. Had,  indeed,  the  old  Levitical  hierarchy  still  con- 
tinued, in  Avhich  it  was  part  of  the  ministerial  ofiice  to  flay 
the  sacrifices,  to  cleanse  the  vessels,  to  scour  the  flesh-forks, 
to  sweep  the  temple,  and  to  carr}''  the  filth  and  rubbish  to 
the  brook  Kidron,  no  persons  living  had  been  better  fitted 
for  the  ministry,  and  to  serve  in  this  nature  at  the  altar. 
But  since  it  is  made  a  labor  of  the  mind,  as  to  inform  men's 
judgments  and  move  their  affections,  to  resolve  difficult 
places  of  Scripture,  to  decide  and  clear  off  controversies, 
I  cannot  see  how  to  be  a  butcher,  scavenger,  or  any  such 
trade,  does  at  all  qualify  and  prepare  men  for  this  work. 
We  have  had  almost  all  sermons  full  of  gibes  and  scoffs  at 
human  learning.  Hereupon  the  ignorant  have  taken  heart 
to  venture  upon  this  great  calling,  and  instead  of  cutting 
their  way  to  it  according  to  the  usual  course,  through  the 
knowledge  of  the  tongues,  the  study  of  philosophy,  school 
divinity,  the  fathers  and  councils,  they  have  taken  another 
and  shorter  cut,  and  having  read  perhaps  a  treatise  or  two 
upon  the  Heart,  the  Bruised  Reed,  the  Crumbs  of  Comfort, 
WoUebius  in  English,  and  some  other  little  authors,  the 
usual  furniture  of  old  women's  closets,  they  have  set  forth 


§   1.      GREATNESS   OF   THE   WORK.  11 

as  accomplished  cli vines,  and  forthwith  they  present  them- 
selves to  the  service ;  and  there  have  not  been  wanting 
Jeroboams  as  willing  to  consecrate  and  receive  them  as  they 
to  offer  themselves."  South  was  not  a  believer  ■  in  lay- 
lireacliing .  Indeed,  in  view  of  the  greatness  of  the  work, 
much  is  to  be  said  on  both  sides  of  that  question,  and  there 
may  be  extreme  views  taken  on  either  side  which  are  inju- 
rious to  the  cause  of  truth  and  religion.  While  all  Chris- 
tians should  "preach  the  gospel,"  and  many  an  uuordained 
preacher,  like  the  great  lay-preacher  who  suffered  for  his 
boldness  twelve  years  in  Bedford  jail,  may  be  a  hundred 
fold  more  effective  than  one  who  is  regularly  appointed, 
yet  even  the  lay-preacher  should  be  fitted  for  the  work 
both  by  human  and  divine  preparation ;  he  should  not  be  a 
"novice;"  he  should  be  "apt  to  teach."  The  fitness  for 
this  work,  in  fact,  lies  more  in  quality  than  in  quantity. 
But  there  are  also  (&.)  moral  truths  with  which  the  preacher 
has  to  deal.  As  our  moral  nature  is  higher  than  our  intel- 
lectual, so  the  preacher's  work,  which  has  to  do  chiefly 
with  moral  truth,  is  superior  to  all  merely  intellectual  pro- 
fessions. The  preacher  is  called  upon  to  study  those  laws 
of  God's  government  which  underlie  the  whole  system  of 
truth ;  and  his  field  is  that  vast  moral  system  which  God 
has  opened  to  the  human  mind  —  that  law  which  is  "exceed- 
insT  broad :  "  which  is  eternal  because  it  is  the  manifestation 
of  God's  nature  ;  which  is  perfect  because  it  is  the  expres- 
sion of  his  will ;  which  is  the  law  of  the  intelligent  uni- 
verse, one  and  simple  in  essence,  but  infinitely  manifold  in 
its  applications. 

To  harmonize  moral  truth  into  a  living  whole  is  the 
preacher's  work ;  for  every  man  who  deserves  to  be  called 
"  a  preacher  of  righteousness "  should,  like  Bunyan  and 
Luther,  have  his  own  system  of  theology ;  that  which  he 
has  himself  drawn  from  the  word,  and  which  he  preaches  and 
lives.  It  is  a  want  of  reverence  for  moral  truth  not  to  strive, 
by  one's  own  thought,  in  communion  with  the  divine  mind, 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

to  discover  the  laws  of  order,  arrangement,  and  beauty 
stamped  upon  it ;  and  one  cannot  preach  with  the  highest 
clearness  and  power  who  does  not  possess  some  well- 
ordered-system  of  moral  truth  for  his  groundwork  of  rea- 
soning and  appeal.  Moral  truth  has  also  an  intimate  and 
special  relation  to  man's  nature  and  duty.  It  enters  the 
complex  sphere  of  human  life,  and  whatever  bears  directly 
or  indirectly  upon  the  common  life  of  humanity  belongs  to 
the  preacher's  domain.  He  deals  with  the  wonderful  world 
of  the  human  heart,  its  mixed  good  and  evil,  its  atfections 
that  are  so  tender,  its  hate,  passion,  and  crime,  its  joy 
and  despair,  its  hopes  and  fears,  its  desires  that  are  never 
satisfied  but  in  God.  Nothing  is  shut  out  from  the  preacher 
in  mind,  nature,  morals,  letters,  art,  science,  government, 
the  varied  relations  of  society  and  human  life,  which  influ- 
ences moral  character,  and  enters  into  the  schooling  of  this 
lower  life  for  a  perfect  life  in  God  —  in  a  word,  that  human 
theology  concerning  which  Neander  loved  to  quote  ^the 
words,  ^^ Pectus  est  quod  facit  tJteologum."  But  there  is  a 
still  higher  sphere  of  truth  to  which  the  preacher  must 
ascend.  He  deals  (c.)  with  sjnritual  truths.  He  must 
rise  from  the  seen  to  the  unseen,  from  the  natural  to  the 
spiritual.  In  1  Cor.  4 :  1  it  is  written,  ''Let  a  man  so  ac- 
count of  us  as  of  the  ministers  of  Christ  and  steivards  of 
the  mysteries  of  God.'"  In  Eph.  6  :  19  it  is  also  written, 
"  That  I  may  open  my  mouth  boldly  to  mahe  known  the 
mystery  of  the  gospel."  In  these  passages,  to  pvoxiiijLov 
means  literally  a  secret,  a  thing  not  obvious,  not  explained, 
or  not  explained  to  all,  and  perhaps  impossible  to  be  known 
by  human  reason  ;  for  there  is  a  true  as  well  as  a  false  mys- 
ticism. Vinet  says,  "Le  bon  mysticisme  est  la  manne  ca- 
chde  des  vdritoes  (ivangdliques  ;  il  fait  sentir  ce  que  ne  pent 
pas  se  dire,  ce  que  I'analyse  est  impuissante  a  expliquer."  ^ 
In  divine  truth  there  is  that  which  is  obvious  and  that 

'  '  Histoire  de  la  Predication  des  Ecformes,  etc.,  p.  624. 


§  1.       GREATNESS    OF    THE    WORK.  13 

which  is  more  spiritual  and  hidden,  but  of  which  much 
may  be  known  by  the  spiritual  mind.  A  telescope  applied 
to  the  heavens  brings  to  view  objects  which  for  thousands 
of  years  were  not  known  to  the  simple,  unaided  human 
mind  ;  and  Christian  faith  is,  as  it  were,  the  application  of 
a  telescope  to  the  spiritual  firmament ;  it  reveals  things 
^' hidden  from  the  foundation  of  the  worlds  Christian  faith 
is  not  a  mere  continuation  or  extension  of  natural  religion, 
nor  is  it  a  sj^stem  of  religious  truth  which  may  be  reached 
by,  or  is  on  a  level  with,  our  natural  reason.  It  is  above 
the  level  of  natural  religion.  It  is  revealed  by  the  Spirit. 
We  could,  of  ourselves,  never  have  arrived  at  the  truth 
of  the  Atonement,  although  there  is  a  profound  prepara- 
tion for  it  in  man's  history,  and  in  the  intimations  and 
wants  of  his  nature.  Now,  into  this  higher  sphere  of 
revealed  truth,  of  those  spiritual  verities  which  compre- 
hend the  love  and  perfections  of  God  and  the  truths  of 
eternal  life,  —  the  whole  unseen  world  of  foith,  —  the 
preacher  of  Christ  has  to  rise  by  the  steps  of  faith,  medi- 
tation, and  prayer,  so  that  he  may  become  the  interpreter 
of  the  hidden  things  of  God ;  for  it  is  no  easy  or  common 
thing  to  "  rightly  divide  the  word  of  truth  ;  "  it  shows  that 
one  has  himself  entered  into  it  and  apprehended  it.  It 
presupposes  something  more  than  scholarship,  viz.,  spirit- 
ual insight,  or  the  habit  of  communion  with  God  and  holy 
things.  To  be  the  guide  of  others  in  these  regions  of  the 
higher  truth,  one  must  have  had  some  true  inward  experi- 
ence of  the  renewing  power  of  truth ;  as  Tholuck  says, 
"  Truth  must  have  been  revealed  to  him  through  the  divine 
light  of  the  cross  shining  upon  his  heart."  The  preaching 
of  such  men  as  Chrysostom,  Fendlon,  Herbert,  Leighton, 
Baxter,  Flavel,  Bunyan,  Whitefield,  Gossner,  Chalmers, 
Pay  son,  entering  into  hearts  by  "  ^/^e  jjoiver  of  the  spirit 
of  Christ  "  came  from  a  true  knowledge  of  the  saving  and 
purifying  power  of  the  grace  of  Christ  in  the  heart. 
2 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

3.  The  greatness  of  the  preacher's  work  appears  from  its 
results.  These  would  be  seen  negatively  were  the  pulpit 
stricken  out  of  existence  ;  or  by  the  comparison  of  Chris- 
tian lands  with  heathen  lands,  or  even  with  countries  where 
the  pulpit  is  chiefly  an  engine  of  hierarchical  and  political 
power.  A  superior  condition  of  morality,  education,  and 
civilization  is  never  found  in  lands  where  the  Christian 
pulpit  is  not  found;  and  wherever,  even,  the  pulpit  has 
been  shorn  of  its  power,  there  is  to  be  seen  a  correspond- 
ing moral  deterioration  among  the  people.  Chalmers  com- 
plained of  the  "dormancy  of  the  Scottish  popular  mind," 
and  we  know  the  degraded  character  of  the  Scotch  pulpit 
when  he  first  entered  public  life ;  and  this  same  dulness 
and  moral  stupor  were  seen  across  the  Tweed  in  the  popular 
mind,  when  the  English  pulpit  had  in  a  great  measure  lost 
the  power  it  possessed  in  the  days  of  Howe,  Owen,  Baxter, 
Leighton.  The  quickening  influence  of  the  pulpit  upon 
the  American  mind  is  too  obvious  to  be  denied.  Daniel 
Webster  said  that  he  first  learned  how  to  reason  from  the 
preaching  which  he  heard  in  his  native  village.  Dr.  Wood, 
the  minister  of  Boscawen,  fitted  him  for  college ;  and  his 
tribute  to  the  American  ministry,  in  his  argument  on  the 
Girard  College  case,  is  a  proof  of  his  intense  convictions 
on  this  subject.  The  preacher  goes  deeper  than  the  book 
in  moulding  the  intellectual  habits  and  tastes  of  his  peo- 
ple ;  for  he  begins  earlier  than  the  author,  and  exercises  a 
more  vital  sway  upon  mind.  Almost  the  only  true  elo- 
quence that  now  reaches  the  popular  mind  in  Germany  is 
the  eloquence  of  the  pulpit ;  and  where  are  the  men  in  any 
other  profession  who  may  be  compared  with  those  spirit- 
ual sovereigns  in  our  own  land,  who,  from  their  thrones, 
send  forth  a  life-giving,  shaping  influence  far  around  them? 
Some  of  the  views  of  the  living  theologian  of  Connecticut 
may  be  considered  to  be  open  to  attack ;  but  his  stimu- 
lating power  upon  American  thought  will  not  pass  away. 
All  the  colleges  in  the  land,  with  one  or  two  exceptions, 


§  1.       GREATNESS    OF    THE    WORK.  15 

owe  their  life  principally  to  ministers ;  and  how  many  a 
young  man,  educated  at  college,  and  afterward  distin- 
guished for  great  intellectual  attainments  and  wide  influence 
among  men,  Avas  sent  from  some  obscure  village  through 
the  agency  of  his  minister,  who  had  awaked  in  him  the 
thirst  for  knowledge !  Many  of  our  cities  and  towns 
were  founded  by  ministers  in  the  wilderness  :  New  Haven 
by  John  Davenport ;  Hartford  by  Thomas  Hooker  and 
Samuel  Stone ;  Providence  by  Roger  Williams ;  Salem  by 
Francis  Higginson ;  Cambridge  and  Dorchester  by  John 
Warham ;  this  country  was  settled  through  the  influence  of 
John  Robinson,  Richard  Clifton,  and  other  humble  English 
Congregational  ministers  ;  and  we  need  not  repeat  the  well- 
proved  fact,  that  our  democratic  institutions  and  republican 
form  of  government  were  modelled  upon  the  practical  work- 
ing s^^stems  of  that  primitive  Puritan  New  England  church 
polity  which  was  the  fruit  of  the  thought  and  wisdom  of 
these  minds.  The  intellectual,  social,  and  moral  influence 
of  the  preacher  is  too  broad  a  theme  to  be  entered  upon 
in  these  introductory  remarks ;  and  as  Oberlin,  in  the  bar- 
ren Ban  de  la  Roche,  among  the  Vosges  Mountains,  elevated 
his  parish  in  a  physical  and  m'oral  scale  of  being,  and  taught 
them  how  to  make  roads  and  raise  crops,  as  Avell  as  to  seek 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  so  every  true  minister  raises  the 
scale  of  being  about  him.  He  forms  a  central  power  in 
the  moral  world.  Sitting  in  his  study,  or  standing  in  his 
pulpit,  he  wields  a  formative  influence  upon  public  opinion. 
He  is  the  guardian  of  public  virtue.  He  is  the  elect  cham- 
pion of  the  law  of  righteousness,  as  well  as  of  the  law  of 
love.  Wrong  cannot  withstand  a  free  and  faithful  Chris- 
tian pulpit.  Every  kind  of  vice  —  intemperance,  licen- 
tiousness, slander,  covetousness,  dishonesty,  law-breaking 
—  feels  its  restraining  hand.  The  importance  of  the  Chris- 
tian pulpit  is  comprehensively  shown  in  the  fact  that  it  so 
eflectually  resists  the  power  of  the  kingdom  of  evil  in  the 
world  ;  that  it  sets  itself  in  opposition  to  this  great  current ; 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

that  it  docs  so  hold  the  passions  of  men  in  check,  that  it 
speaks  to  men  as  with  the  voice  of  God,  and  bids  them  do 
what  is  right,  and  not  do  what  is  wrong.  It  not  only  resists 
but  attacks  evil.  A  true  preacher  is  aggressive.  He  has 
taken  np  a  warfare  for  truth.  He  assails  the  power  of  evil 
wherever  it  shows  itself,  and  seeks  it  out  in  its  deepest 
hiding-places.  In  the  reproof  of  sin  he  is  terrible  as  Eli- 
jah and  stern  as  Amos ;  though  he  trusts  more  to  "the  gen- 
tleness of  Christ,"  and  to  ^HJie  still  small  voice"  that  finds 
its  way  to  the  heart. 

Yet  these  results  which  have  been  glanced  at  are  but  the 
incidental  and  almost  accidental  side-issues  and  overflow- 
ings of  the  preacher's  work  ;  the  direct  results  of  his  labors, 
under  God,  are  inner  and  permanent,  being  wrought  upon 
the  soul.  His  work  tells  on  character;  and,  viewed  in  this 
relation,  it  is  not  to  be  estimated  by  gross  standards;  we 
cannot  weigh  spiritual  results  ;  faith,  hope,  joy,  holiness, 
everlasting  life,  are  incommensurable  in  quantity.  To  be  a 
spiritual  counsellor  and  consoler,  one  to  whom  men  turn 
instinctively  in  their  sorrow  for  strength,  for  Christian 
consolation  —  what  office  so  blessed!  To  speak  the  word 
of  sympathy  to  the  soul,  to  be  its  guide  through  the  dark- 
ness and  doubt  of  life,  and  to  conduct  it  to  the  gates  of 
everlasting  life  —  what  work  is  so  great?  He  wdio  can  say 
of  a  single  being,  "  whom  I  have  begotten  in  the  gospel," 
has  "saved  a  soul  from  death  "  and  has  hid  an  innumerable 
and  ever-increasing  "multitude  of  sins."  One  soul,  that  of  a 
child,  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Saviour,  and  shielded 
from  the  evil  of  the  world,  is  a  result  which  w^ould  infi- 
nitely more  than  outweigh  the  toils  and  suflerings  of  a 
whole  ministerial  life.  It  is  difficult  to  make  a  statement 
like  this  look  natural  and  true,  although  so  easy  to  make 
it ;  but  if  the  apostle  believed  what  he  declared,  that  it  is 
through  "  the  foolishness  of  preaching  "  that  men  are  "saved," 
then  such  a  statement  is  true.  What  words,  truly,  were 
those  spoken  by  Christ  to  Paul  at  his  conversion  I    "Rise 


§   1.       GREATNESS    OF    THE    WORK.  17 

and  stand  upon  thy  feet;  for  I  have  appeared  unto  thee  for 
this  purpose,  to  make  thee  a  minister  and  a  witness  both  of 
these  things  which  thou  hast  seen,  and  of  those  tilings  in  the 
which  I  will  appear  unto  thee;  delivering  thee  from  the  peo- 
ple and  the  Gentiles,  to  ivhom  I  noio  send  thee,  to  open  their 
eyes  and  to  turn  them  from  darkness  to  light,  and  from  the 
power  of  Satan  unto  God,  that  they  may  receive  forgive- 
ness of  sins  and  inheritance  among  them  that  are  sanctified 
by  faith  that  is  in  me." 

Does  not  Christ  say  these  words  to  every  true  preacher 
now?  And  if  not  only  the  enlightening  of  one  soul,  but 
of  hundreds  of  souls,  may  follow  his  labors,  how  can  he  suf- 
ficiently magnify  the  greatness  of  his  work  ?  AVhile  Luther 
was  still  a  monk,  he  was  urged  to  accept  the  office  of 
"  Preacher  and  Doctor  of  the  Holy  Scriptures ; "  he  drew 
back  with  terror.  "  Seek  one  more  worthy  of  it,"  he  said  ; 
but  when  the  vicar-general  pressed  it,  Luther,  trembling, 
declared  that  "  the  Holy  Spirit  could  alone  make  a  Doctor 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures ; "  and  when  at  last  constrained  to 
accept  the  charge,  he  took  this  simple  oath:  "I  swear  to 
defend  manfully  the  truth  of  the  gospel ; "  as  if  this  were 
all  he  could  do,  or  dared  to  undertake,  and  that  God  must 
do  the  rest.  The  earnest,  homely  words  of  Philip  Henry, 
on  the  day  of  his  ordination,  cannot  be  too  often  quoted  to 
those  entering  the  ministry :  "  I  did  this  day  receive  so 
much  honor  and  work  as  ever  I  shall  know  what  to  do 
with.     Lord  Jesus,  proportion  supplies  accordingly." 

4.  The  greatness  and  dignity  of  the  preacher's  work  are 
seen  from  the  fact  that  Jesus  was  a  preacher.  It  seems 
strange  that  we  do  not,  as  a  general  thing,  seem  to  think 
of  the  Saviour  as  a  preacher,  nor  set  his  preaching  before 
us  as  a  model  for  our  own  ;  for  while  there  may  be,  it  can- 
not be  doubted,  a  profound  truth  in  this  negative  sentiment 
of  all  reverent  minds,  arising  from  the  fact  that  our  Lord 
is  above  all  human  comparison,  and  also  in  the  blended  fact 
2* 


18  INTRODUCTION. 

that  our  Lord  furnished  the  material  and  was  "the  truth" 
that  we,  as  preachers,  are  to  use  and  proclaim,  as  iu  an- 
other's words  :  "  Thus  he  spoke  to  them  of  the  kingdom 
of  heaven ;  and  when  he  wielded  the  powers  of  his  king- 
dom, they  felt  more  and  more  that  he  governed  the  secret 
heart  of  nature  and  of  man  ;"'  yet,  notwithstanding  all  this, 
if  we  take  the  Saviour's  own  testimony  upon  this  point,  he 
claimed  to  be  a  preacher,  and  made  this  a  main  part  of 
his  earthly  work.  We  have  but  to  recall  the  scene  in  the 
synagogue  at  Nazareth,  where  he  applied  to  himself  Isaiah's 
words,  "  The  Sjnrit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he  hath 
anointed  me,  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor,  lie  hath  sent 
me  to  heal  the  broT^en-hearted,  to  preach  deliverance  to  the 
captives,  and  i^ecovering  of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  lib- 
erty them  that  are  bruised,  to  preach  the  acceptable  year  of 
the  LordJ^  And  it  is  said  in  Matt.  11  :  1,  '"And  it  came 
to  pass,  ivhen  Jesus  had  made  an  end  of  commanding  his 
twelve  disciples,  he  departed  thence  to  teach  and  preach  in 
their  cities"  And  in  Mark  1 :  38,  39,  ^^And  he  said  unto 
them,  Let  us  go  into  the  next  towns,  that  I  may  preach  there 
also ;  for  therefore  came  I  forth ;  and  he  preached  in  their 
synagogues  throughout  all  Galilee."  The  power  of  Jesus' 
preaching  may  be  estimated  by  its  effects.  Great  multitudes 
followed  him.  He  drew  them  after  him  in  a  triumphal 
train  wherever  he  went.  The  Pharisees  said,  ^^ If  we  let  him 
alone,  all  the  people  will  believe  on  him;"  and  it  was  from 
his  deadly  enemies  that  the  remarkable  confession  came,  "O, 
sirs,  never  man  spake  as  this  man."  The  fears,  hope,  love, 
hate,  of  the  multitudes  who  thronged  him  were  touched. 
If  eloquence  consists  in  moving  the  soul,  this  was  elo- 
quence. He  made  men  look  into  their  hearts,  and  they 
rushed  upon  him  to  destroy  him,  or  cast  themselves  at  his 
feet  to  adore  him.  He  swayed  men  at  his  will.  He  made 
men  look  to  him  for  help.     They  brought  their  real  wants, 

'  r.  D.  Maurice.     Theol.  Essays. 


§  1.       GREATNESS    OP    THE    WORK.  19 

doubts,  and  sorrows  to  him.  They  asked  him  questions 
with  that  popuUir  instinct  which,  in  some  sense,  is  the  voice 
of  God,  because  it  is  the  voice  of  nature,  perceiving  in  him 
a  divine  truth,  seeing  that  he  was  a  true  teacher.  And  how 
many  cases  are  mentioned  in  the  Gospels  of  immediate  con- 
version's following  his  words  !  The  more  remote  results  of 
Christ's  preaching  is  a  theme  bej'ond  the  power  of  imagina- 
tion to  conceive  ;  for  the  few  recorded  discourses  and  words 
of  Christ  have  formed  the  staple  of  divine  truth  and  of 
all  true  preaching,  ever  since.  The  great  characteristic  of 
Christ's  preaching  might  reverently  be  thus  expressed  :  that 
essential  truth,  truth  which  is  necessary  for  the  soul's  life, 
was  conveyed  by  him  in  such  a  way  —  with  such  clearness, 
naturalness,  and  illustrative  force  —  that  this  truth  came  to 
be  apprehended,  not  only  by  the  minds,  but  in  the  hearts,  of 
his  hearers.  They  saw  the  truth  and  loved  it,  or  they  saw 
the  truth  and  hated  it.  There  was  in  his  teaching  a  perfect 
adaptation  to  those  whom  he  addressed.  He  found  the 
heart  of  every  one  to  whom  he  spoke.  He  had  the  effi- 
ciency of  sympathetic  love.  He  reached  every  one  because 
he  perfectly  loved  every  one.  When  he  preached  to  his 
disciples,  it  was  one  thing ;  when  to  the  Pharisees,  it  was 
another.  But  there  was  always  a  fundamental  truth,  a 
fact  concerning  God  and  man's  relations  to  him,  a  princi- 
ple of  divine  life  which  was  already  acknowledged  by  the 
natural  conscience,  or  revealed  in  the  Scriptures ;  and  this 
fact,  principle,  or  truth,  be  it  terrible  or  joyful,  was  set 
forth  before  the  people's  eyes  and  hearts,  as  clearly  as  the 
sun.  Neither  they,  nor  any  men  after  them,  will  ever  for- 
get or  really  disbelieve  the  truth  of  the  forgiving  mercy 
of  the  heavenly  Father,  as  set  forth  in  the  parable  of  the 
"  Prodigal  Son."  Therefore  the  teachings  of  Christ,  in  a 
higher  sense  than  the  words  were  originally  used,  are  a 
xTTi^a  is  6et.  They  will  never  drop  out  of  the  world's  heart. 
May  we  not,  then,  as  preachers,  proflt  from  Christ's  preach- 
ing?    Should  we  not  earnestly  study  him  as  a  preacher? 


20  INTRODucTIO^^ 

It  may  be  that  the  Occidental  mind  demands  a  treatment 
of  truth  different  from  what  the  Oriental  requires,  and 
that  the  ages  difi'er ;  but  truth  is  the  same,  and  man's  mind 
is  the  same  now  as  then ;  and  the  intrinsic  qualities  of  our 
Lord's  preaching  may  be  studied,  even  if  his  preaching  was 
that  of  Omniscience.  The  dignity  and  greatness  of  the 
preacher's  work  is,  at  all  events,  crowned  by  the  fact  that 
Jesus  was  anointed  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor. 


PREACHING. 


(21) 


PART    FIRST. 

PREACHING   SPECIALLY  CONSIDERED. 


FIRST  DIVISION". 
THE  HISTORY  AND  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

§  2.     Definition  of  Preaching . 

"Preaching,"  or  '^  x^/^Qvyfta"  is  a  generic  scriptural  word, 
which  signifies  literally  a  heralding  of  the  word  of  God  to 
man,  to  one  man  as  well  as  to  all  people.  It  is  not  neces- 
sarily a  popular  address,  or  discourse,  but  may  be  applied 
to  all  kinds  of  "proclaiming,"  or  "publishing,"  of  Christian 
truth,  in  conversation,  in  the  interviews  of  missionaries 
with  the  heathen,  in  the  common  intercourse  of  men,  in  the 
daily  life  and  examjile  —  in  fact,  it  is  making  known,  in  any 
and  every  way,  the  gospel  to  men. 

The  Greek  word  "homily,"  which  sprang  up  in  post- 
apostolic  times,  and  which  is  precisely  identical  with  our 
modern  word  "sermon,"  applies  more  especially  to  theses 
preaching  which  is  addressed  to  an  assembled  congregation, 
forming  part  of  the  public  worship  of  the  sanctuary.  It  is 
derived  from  ofnlta,  or  o^dog,  meaning  an  assembly ;  whence 
the  term  "Homiletics." 

Some  modern  definitions  of  "  Homiletics  "  are  the  follow- 
ing :  "  The  science  which  teaches  the  principles  of  adapting 
the  discourses  of  the  pulpit  to  the  spiritual  benefit  of  the 

(23) 


24  PREACHING. 

hearers.  It  is  a  part  of  practical  Theology."^  "The  sci- 
ence of  Rhetoric  applied  to  the  theory  of  Preaching,  to 
the  construction  and  delivery  of  a  sermon."  2  A  defini- 
tion from  a  popular  source  is  still  simpler :  "  The  Art  of 
Preaching."  ^ 

Vinet  calls  Homiletics  "  a  department  of  Rhetoric  ;  "  but 
it  would  be  more  dignified  to  call  it  the  application  of  the 
principles  of  Rhetoric  to  preaching  the  word  of  God,  which 
is  the  end  and  aim  of  all  eloquence. 

The  term  "  homily  "  occurs  but  once  in  the  Scriptures,  in 
1  Cor.  15  :  33,  and  then  in  a  sense  entirely  foreign  to  preach- 
ing. A  "homily,"  in  the  ancient  church  succeeding  the 
apostolical  times,  signified  a  more  formal  address  to  a  regu- 
lar religious  assembly.  Thus  Hagenbach  quotes  this  pas- 
sage from  one  of  the  fathers :  "  Theologi  Christiani,  et 
nominatim  ex  veteribus  Qhrysostomus,  Basilius,  Macarius, 
et  alii,  ofuliuc,  vacant  sermones  ad  costum  hahitos.  Atque 
ita  ofidia  et  Xoyog  diffevunt.''"^  The  "homily,"  or,  which  is 
the  same  thing,  the  "  sermon,"  combines  the  simple  idea  of 
"preaching,"  or  "publishing  the  word  of  God,"  with  the 
idea  of  more  thoughtful  and  systematic  instruction  of  God's 
people  in  the  truth.  It  has  essentially  the  character  of  a 
"discourse,"  combining,  in  however  rude  a  form,  analysis 
and  synthesis. 

Vinet's  definition  of  the  "sermon"  is,  "a  discourse  incor- 
porated with  public  worship,  and  designed,  concurrently  or 
alternately,  to  conduct  to  Christian  truth  one  who  has  not 
yet  believed  in  it,  and  to  explain  and  apply  it  to  those  who 
admit  it."  ^ 

'  Dr.  Fitch.  ^  Prof.  Phelps.  =*  British  Critic. 

*  Hagenbach's  Grund.  der  Lit.,  etc.,  Der  Predigt,  §  31. 

*  Vinet's  Homiletics,, p.  28. 


§  3.      HISTORY   OF   PREACHING.  25 


§  3.     History  of  Preaching. 

This  is  a  theme  upon  which  much  time  might  be  spent, 
and  there  is  no  richer  field  of  research,  since,  in  some 
sense,  it  comprehends  the  history  of  theology  and  of  spirit- 
ual religion ;  for  in  no  part  of  the  history  of  the  church  is 
the  progress  and  advancement  of  spiritual  truth,  and  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  in  the  world,  more  clearly  exhibited  than 
in  the  history  of  preaching.  It  is,  indeed,  still  but  partially 
developed  ;  but  we  cannot  linger  long  upon  it  in  a  work  that 
has  a  more  immediately  practical  aim. 

1.  Nothing  marks  the  intellectual  and  religious  spirit  of  a 
period  more  distinctively  nor  more  delicately,  than  its  style 
of  preaching.  As  Coleridge  says,  "  The  tone,  the  matter,  the 
anticipated  sympathies  in  the  sermons  of  an  age,  form  the 
best  criterion  of  the  character  of  that  age ;  "  and  this  may 
serve  as  a  guiding  principle  in  the  investigation  of  the  his- 
tory of  preaching,  for  while  the  great  fundamental  truths  of 
Christian  preachiug  remain  the  same  in  all  times  and  in  every 
age,  the  style  of  preaching,  in  its  spirit  and  form,  has  been  a 
genuine  though  ever-changing  index  of  the  phases  of  reli- 
gious and  theological  opinion  of  different  Christian  epochs 
and  civilizations.  And  have  we  not  good  reason  to  think  that 
preaching  itself  has  been  shaped  and  guided  by  the  Spirit 
of  God? 

There  are  ever  thus,  in  the  historj^  of  preaching,  the  per- 
manent and  the  variable  elements,  since  preaching  does  not 
remain  the  same,  while  its  theme  is  ever  the  same ;  and  he 
surely  is  the  preacher  who  is  best  fitted  to  influence  the  age 
in  which  he  lives,  who,  while  he  remains  true  to  the  un- 
changeable principles  of  divine  truth,  is  still  impressible  and 
intelligently  alive  to  the  influences  of  the  present  time,  of 
which  he  forms  a  part. 

So  far  as  the  mere  form  of  preaching  is  concerned,  he 
3 


26  '         PREACHING. 

who  would  preach  now  precisely  in  the  style  of  the  scho- 
lastic asres,  or  even  of  the  age  of  our  earliest  New  England 
fathers,  would  be  regarded  as  a  crazed  enthusiast;  and  we 
might  perhaps  extend  that  remark  to  the  age  of  the  reform- 
ers, and  of  the  apostles  themselves ;  for  Christ  may  be 
preached  under  other  forms,  and  with  a  different  style  of 
argumentation,  and  a  new  clothing  of  words  and  diction, 
and  it  would  still  be  "Jesus  Christ,  the  same  yesterday , 
to-day,  and  forever." 

2.  There  has  been,  from  the  beginning  of  time,  a  Word 
of  God  in  the  world,  which  is  to  be  taught  to  men  prin- 
cipally through  the  intelligent  and  independent,  though 
divinely-directed,  instrumentality  of  human  agencies,  —  we 
may  freely  term  them  ''preachers,''  —  for  they  publish  divine 
truth  as  with  the  clear  sound  of  a  trumpet.  Noah,  early  in 
the  beginning,  but  after  the  world  had  fallen  away  from  the 
knowledge  of  God,  is  thus  called  '^  a  preacher  of  righteous- 
ness." Moses,  who  could  lead  an  exodus,  felt  himself  une- 
qual to  the  task  of  teaching  the  people  by  public  address, 
and  transferred  that  work  to  Aaron.  "  Schools  of  the  proph- 
ets "  were  established  very  early  in  the  history  of  the  Jew- 
ish nation.  In  Jehoshaphat's  time  we  read  (2  Chron.  17  :  9) 
of  those  "'?^Ao  taught  in  Judah,  and  had  the  book  of  the  law 
with  them,  and  went  throughout  the  cities  of  Judah  and 
taught  the  people." 

The  '^ prophets  "  of  the  Old  Testament  are,  above  all,  no- 
ticeable in  this  regard  ;  as  resembling,  far  more  than  the 
"  priests  "  of  that  time  and  dispensation,  the  preachers  of 
the  Christian  church ;  for  they  were  true  teachers  of  the 
people  ;  and  the  most  ancient  meaning  of  the  word  "  proph- 
et "  in  the  original  Hebrew,  and  in  its  earliest  use  in  the 
Bible,  was  not  so  much  ."foreteller,"  as  "spokesman,"  or 
"  interpreter,"  of  God's  will.^ 

In  the  "  prophet,"  the  moral  and  spiritual  elements  of 

'  Stanley's  Hist,  of  Jewish  Church,  Scribner's  ed.,  vol.  i.,  p.  459. 


§  3.      HISTORY   OF   PREACHING.  27 

religion  altogether  prevailed  over  the  formal  and  cere- 
monial. 

After  the  Captivity,  there  was  great  and  renewed  enthu- 
siasm for  the  pure  teaching  of  the  books  of  the  Law,  and 
schools  were  established  to  raise  up  accomplished  teachers 
of  the  moral  law,  who  were  the  "lawyers"  and  "scribes"  of 
the  New  Testament.  Synagogues,  also,  were  founded,  in 
which  were  regular  expositions  of  "the  Law  and  the  Proph- 
ets" on  the  Sabbath;  and  in  the  time  of  the  apostles,  ac- 
cording to  Philo,  the  services  in  the  large  and  splendidly 
adorned  Jewish  synagogues,  consisted  chiefly  in  oral  in- 
struction and  free,  extended  speaking. 

Still,  it  must  be  said  that  "preaching,"  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  Christian  sense  of  the  term,  was  not  the  chief  or 
prominent  instrumentality  of  spreading  divine  truth  and 
building  up  the  kingdom  of  God  in  the  Old  Testament  time 
and  dispensation ;  but  we  do  not,  nevertheless,  consider 
preaching  to  be  so  peculiar  to  the  Christian  economy,  that 
there  are  no  suggestions  of  it,  or  examples  of  it,  in  the 
older  church  ;  for  it  belongs,  rather,  to  the  very  needs  of  our 
human  nature,  to  the  divine  method  of  reason  and  love,  to 
the  character  of  a  reasonable  and  spiritual  religion,  and  to 
the  most  efficient  mode  of  communicating  truth. 

3.  When  the  time  had  come  for  the  kingdom  of  God  to 
be  published  to  all  men,  to  be  given  to  Gentiles  as  well  as 
to  Jews,  then  Christ  said,  "6rO,  ■preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature  "  —  "  j^roclaim  it  everywhere  and  to  all  men  as  with 
the  sound  of  a  trumpet."  The  great  means  of  its  advance- 
ment and  establishment  in  the  whole  world,  was  to  be 
preaching.  He  himself  set  the  example  of  this  ;  for  he  not 
only  preached  in  the  synagogue  and  in  the  porch  of  the 
Temple,  but  in  the  market-place,  in  the  country,  and  by  the 
wayside. 

The  apostles,  in  imitation  of  the  Saviour,  who  founded 
Christian  preaching  in  his  vocation  as  "  prophet,"  took  up 
and  carried  on  this  great  work,  sowing  the  seed  of  truth 


28  PREACHING. 

everywhere,  making  the  Scriptures  the  basis  of  their  preach- 
ing, but  treating  them  more  freely  than  the  Old  Testament 
preachers,  and  adding  to  these  inspired  writings  their  own 
words  and  teachings  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Petei'ls  preaching  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  has  been  called 
"the  first  Christian  sermon,"  but  we  prefer  to  date  Christian 
preaching  from  a  higher  source.  JPaul's  preaching  was  cer- 
tainly no  rude  or  rambling  address ;  and  although  it  was 
not,  as  some  have  contended,  formed  upon  the  scientific 
rules  of  ancient  eloquence,  his  discourses  had  a  method ; 
they  exhibit  in  their  fragmentary  forms  the  graces  of  the 
introduction,  the  vehement  logic  of  the  argument,  the  feel- 
ing pathos  and  direct  appeal  of  the  close.  His  language  has 
a  strongly  rhetorical  as  well  as  spiritual  power.  Luther  said 
of  Paul's  preaching,  "  His  words  are  not  dead  w  ords  ;  they 
are  living  creatures,  with  hands  and  feet."  Paul,  it  is  true, 
was  an  educated  man,  and  had  experienced  the  influence  of 
both  the  Greek  and  Eoman  cultures,  as  well  as  of  the  He- 
brew and  Rabbinical  schools ;  but  the  other  disciples  were 
also  specially  gifted  to  persuade  men  to  be  reconciled  to 
God ;  they  were  men  of  sound  minds,  deeply  versed  in  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  of  popular  magnetic  power,  and,  above 
all,  enlightened  and  inspired  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 

The  special  gifts  of  Knowledge,  of  Interpretation,  of 
Teaching,  in  the  primitive  church,  all  point  to  the  fact  and 
importance  of  the  preacher's  ofiice,  or  to  what  Neander  calls 
*'  the  ordinary  and  regular  office  of  preaching." 

The  preaching  of  the  primitive  church  was  literally 
"  preaching,"  or  heralding,  the  Glad  Tidings,  and  was  char- 
acterised by  brevity,  spontaneousness,  and  feeling,  rather 
than  by  argument  and  labored  eloquence.  It  had  less  of 
the  didactic  than  of  the  simple  manifesting  or  proclaiming 
element;  it  had  to  penetrate  the  massed  heathenism  and 
darkness  of  the  world ;  it  was  more  addressed  to  the  con- 
version of  the  unbeliever  than  to  the  building  up  of  believ- 
ers;  still,  there  seems  to  have  been,   in  addition  to  the 


§   3.       HISTORY    OF   PREACHING.  29 

expounding  of  the  Scriptures  after  the  manner  of  the  syna- 
gogue, something  which  might  be  more  truly  called  Christian 
preaching  ;  impelling  men  to  faith  and  a  godly  life,  and  dwell- 
ing greatly  on  the  personal  example  of  the  Lord.  It  had,  in 
fact,  first  of  all,  to  gather  and  make  the  church,  which  should 
become  the  instructing  power  in  the  world,  which  should  have 
its  own  regular  system  of  teaching,  which  should  be  itself  "  a 
ministry  of  the  word."  "The  preaching  of  the  gospel  appears 
in  the  first  period  mostly  in  the  form  of  a  missionary  address 
to  the  unconverted  ;  that  is,  a  simple  living  presentation  of 
the  main  facts  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  with  practical  exhortation 
to  repentance  and  conversion.  Christ  crucified  and  risen 
was  the  luminous  centre,  whence  a  sanctifying  light  was 
shed  on  all  the  relations  of  life.  Gushing  forth  from  a  full 
heart,  this  preaching  went  home  to  the  heart ;  and  spring- 
ing from  an  inward  life  it  kindled  life,  a  new  divine  life  in 
the  susceptible  hearers.  It  was  revival  preaching  in  the 
purest  sense.  Of  this  primitive  Christian  testimony  several 
examples  from  Peter  and  Paul  are  preserved  in  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles.  The  Epistles  also  may  be  regarded  in  the 
widest  sense  as  sermons,  addressed,  however,  to  believers, 
and  designed  to  nourish  the  Christian  life  already  planted." ' 

Neander  calls  these  "preachings"  in  the  early  church 
"simple  addresses."  They  must  have  been  such,  when  we 
consider  how  feeble  and  small  were  the  early  Christian  as- 
semblies. They  worshipped,  for  the  most  part,  in  private 
houses ;  and,  in  times  of  persecution,  in  dens  and  caves  of 
the  earth.  Justin  Martyr  says  of  them,  "The  presiding 
officer  of  the  church  gives  a  word  of  exhortation,  and  incites 
the  people  to  exemplify  in  their  lives  the  good  things  they 
had  listened  to." 

Preaching  is  described  by  the  earliest  Christian  writers 
as,  generally  speaking,  a  ministerial  function,  or  that  of  a 
regularly  appointed  teacher  or  minister ;  although  there  was 

'  Schaff's  Hist,  of  the  Christian  Church,  vol.  i.,  p.  119. 

3* 


30  PREACHING. 

extraordinary  preaching  by  "the  prophets,"  "exhorters," 
&c.,  and  also,  in  the  hirgest  sense  of  the  term,  by  all  believ- 
ers. It  is  said  of  those  who  received  Christ  as  the  Messiah, 
that,  in  the  first  strength  and  impulse  of  their  new  faith, 
"  they  went  everywhere  preaching  the  word  ;  "  but  the  more 
extraordinary  and  irregular  methods  of  preaching  which  be- 
longed to  the  earliest  beginnings  of  the  faith,  and  to  a  prop- 
affatins:  era,  soon  settled  down  into  the  uniform  and  ordi- 
nary  modes  of  teaching  (ihSaayaliu) .  Preaching  to  regular 
Christian  assemblages,  drawn  out  from  Judaic  and  heathen 
circles,  celebrating  together  in  simple  forms  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per, and  requiring  a  mode  of  instruction  and  cultus  entirely 
different  and  peculiar,  characterized  the  two  first  centuries 
of  the  Christian  era ;  and  to  this  epoch  belong  Clement  of 
Rome,  Polycaiy,  Ignatius,  Tertullian,  and  all  the  so-called 
apostolic  fathers,  or  preachers,  for  they  were  truly  such,  of 
that  primitive  period. 

4.  In  the  third  century,  Origen  was  perhaps  one  of  the 
first,  if  not  the  very  first,  to  construct  the  formal  sermon, 
or  the  sacred  oration,  built  more  or  less  on  the  rules  of 
Greek  eloquence.  The  homiletical  principle  Avhich  was  sure 
to  come  into  preaching  with  the  growth  of  learning  and  the 
progress  of  philosophical  thought  in  the  church,  received 
from  Origen  its  first,  though  perhaps  unconscious,  impulse  ; 
the  father  of  Origen  was  himself  a  classical  scholar  and  a 
trained  rhetorician,  from  whom  he  received  his  earliest  in- 
structions. Origen  took  truth  out  of  the  Scriptures  and 
treated  it  homiletically,  as  a  theme  {dii.ia)  of  thought,  com- 
bining it  in  a  synthetic  process,  and  developing  it  in  rhetori- 
cal and  philosophical  forms.  He  was,  in  fact,  probably  the 
originator  of  what  might  be  specifically  termed  the  docti^inal 
sermon.  He  was  also  the  leader  in  the  method  of  exegeti- 
cal  and  expository  preaching,  in  the  application  of  Scrip- 
tural interpretation  to  the  practical  wants  of  his  hearers  ; 
and  although  so  injuriously  inclined  to  allegorical  and  mys- 
tical interpretation,  yet  he  conscientiously  made  the  exposi- 


§   3.       HISTORY   Oi'   PKJiJACniNG.  31 

tion  of  the  Scriptures  the  basis  of  his  preaching  and  public 
teaching.  Many  of  his  own  "  homilies  "  are  partially  pre- 
served to  us,  though  very  much  corrupted  by  Latin  annota- 
tors  and  translators. 

At  the  middle  or  end  of  the  tliird  century,  owing  to  the 
wider  power  of  Christian  truth  and  the  more  regular  char- 
acter of  Christian  assemblies,  preaching  assumed  a  more 
prominent  and  central  place  in  public  worship  as  the  best 
means  of  instructing  the  people  in  the  life  and  work  of 
Christ,  although  the  fire  and  earnestness  of  the  preaching 
of  the  earlier  period  began  sensibly  to  decline.  The  work 
of  instruction  gradually  grew  to  be  exclusively  confined 
to  the  presbyteral  ofiice,  although  the  free  laic  element  in 
teaching  which  characterized  the  early  church  was  by  no 
means  as  yet  entirely  extinguished ;  yet  preaching,  by  this 
time,  whether  rightly  or  wrongly,  though  it  may  be  on 
account  of  the  abuse  of  the  privilege  by  fanatical  and  igno- 
rant men,  was  assumed  to  be  a  ministerial  function ;  and 
theological  schools  were  formed  in  the  great  cities  like  the 
one  instituted  by  Origen  at  Alexandria,  which  was,  in  fact, 
the  first  Christian  seminary.  These  schools  were  under  the 
immediate  supervision  of  individual  bishops  or  presbyters, 
and  were  at  first  gathered  together  by  the  fame  of  some 
great  theological  teacher ;  but  afterward,  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, they  were  enlarged,  and  made  in  a  measure  indepen- 
dent by  the  appointment  of  special  instructors.  In  these 
schools,  together  with  the  study  of  Christian  doctrine,  hom- 
iletical  instruction,  with  exegetical  and  dialectical  practice, 
for  the  purpose  of  public  address,  became  important 
branches.  To  this  period  belong  the  names  of  many  illus- 
trious preachers  of  Christ,  such  as  Origen^  Hi2)polytus, 
and  the  orator  and  martyr  Oyprian. 

Eegular  places  of  assembly, ^or  what  we  call  "churches," 
were  by  this  time  in  use ;  and  in  the  period  of  the  Em- 
peror Constantine,  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century, 
we  find  the  "basilicas,"  or  "Roman  Halls  of  Justice,"  the 


32  PREACHING. 

largest  buildings  in  the  cities,  appropriated  for  Christian 
worship.  The  general  form  and  arrangement  of  these  edi- 
fices with  the  apsis,  choir,  one  main  and  two  lateral  aisles, 
became  the  models  of  our  Christian  church  edifices  down 
to  the  present  day.  The  bishop,  or  presbyter,  spoke  while 
sitting,  in  token  of  the  authority  of  the  divine  word  ;  or  else 
from  a  high-raised  pulpit,  nearer  the  middle  of  the  church, 
called  an  " amho,"  or,  sometimes,  "throne  of  the  preacher." 
In  some  churches  were  two  ^^ambones,"  as  may  now  be  seen 
in  the  most  ancient  churches  of  Eome  and  Milan ;  one  of 
these  was  for  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures.  The  people 
sometimes  stood  during  the  preaching ;  in  the  church  of 
North  Africa,  this  was  the  universal  custom.  The  sermon 
was  generally  without  notes,  being  chiefly  remarks  upon  the 
portion  of  Scripture  read,  as  the  lesson  of  the  day,  or  what 
was  called  the  " jjericope ,"  a  selection  from  the  Gospels  or 
Epistles.  The  reading  and  exposition  of  whole  books  of  the 
Bible  in  this  way  remained  in  practice  until  the  Jifth  cen- 
tury, as  may  be  seen  in  the  works  of  Chrysostom,  Ambrose, 
Augustine,  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Basil,  and  Athanasius ;  and 
this  constituted,  probably,  the  chief  matter  and  form  of 
preaching.  On  special  occasions,  however,  a  regular  text 
was  often  taken,  and  a  sacred  oration,  with  a  distinct  theme, 
constructed  more  or  less  in  reference  to  the  rules  of  art, 
was  delivered ;  and  there  is  reason  to  think  that  the  great 
preachers  of  the  first  five  centuries  felt  themselves  free  to 
take  any  portion  of  the  word  of  God  as  their  theme,  and 
that  the  province  of  the  pulpit  extended  over  the  whole  field 
of  revealed  truth. ^ 

But  preaching  soon  lost  its  primitive  simplicity  and  spir- 
ituality. It  not  only  began  to  admit  the  speculative  and 
polemic-  elements,  mingling  human  philosophy  with  the  pure 
Christian  dogma ;  but  it  was  formed  too  exclusively  upon 
the   rules  of  civil  eloquence,  and  was  aimed  too  much  at 

'  Schaff's  Hist.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  478. 


§   3.       HISTORY    OF   PREACHING.  33 

rhetorical  display.  It  sometimes  called  forth  popular  ap- 
plause, expressed  by  stamping  or  exclamations,  as  we  read 
of  in  the  preaching  of  Chrysostom  and  Augustine,  and  espe- 
cially of  Cyril  of  Alexandria :  some  one  Avould  exclaim, 
"  The  orthodox  Cyril !  "  "  The  thirteenth  apostle  !  "  Nean- 
der,  in  a  comprehensive  passage,  speaking  of  the  preaching 
of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  says,  "As  to  the  relation  of 
the  sermon  to  the  whole  office  of  worship,  this  is  a  point  on 
which  we  meet  with  the  most  opposite  errors  of  judgment. 
Some,  who  looked  upon  the  clergy  only  as  officiating 
priests,  and  who  considered  the  main  parts  of  Christian 
worship  to  consist  in  the  magical  effects  of  the  priestly  ser- 
vices, were  hence  inclined  greatly  to  overvalue  the  liturgi- 
cal element  of  worship.  The  gift  of  teaching  they  regarded 
as  something  foreign  from  the  spiritual  office,  as  they  sup- 
posed the  Holy  Ghost,  imparted  to  the  priestly  ordination, 
could  be  ti'ansmitted  to  others  only  by  his  sensible  media- 
tion. Others,  however,  and  on  account  of  the  rhetorical 
style  of  culture  which  prevailed  among  the  higher  classes  in 
the  large  cities  of  the  East,  —  this  was  especially  the  case  of 
the  Greek  church,  —  gave  undue  importance  to  the  didactic 
and  rhetorical  part  of  worship,  and  did  not  attach  impor- 
tance enough  to  the  essentials  of  Christian  fellowship,  and 
of  common  edification  and  devotion.  Hence  the  church 
would  be  thronged  when  some  famous  speaker  was  to  be 
heard ;  but  only  a  few  remained  behind  when  the  sermon 
was  ended  and  the  church  prayers  followed.  'The  sermon,' 
said  they,  'we  can  hear  nowhere  but  at  church ;  but  we  can 
pray  just  as  well  at  home.'  Against  this  abuse  Chrysostom 
had  frequent  occasion  to  speak,  in  his  discourses  preached 
at  Antioch  and  Constantinople.  Hence,  too,  without  regard 
to  the  essential  character  of  the  church,  a  style  borrowed 
from  the  theatre  or  lecture-rooms  of  declaimers  was  intro- 
duced into  the  church  assemblies ;  as  these  were  frequented 
for  the  purpose  of  hearing  some  orator  celebrated  for  his 
eloquent  language,  or  his  power  of  producing  a  momentary 


34  PREACHING. 

effect  on  the  imagination  or  the  feelings.  Hence  the  custom 
of  interrupting  such  speakers,  at  their  more  striking  and 
impassioned  passages,  witli  noisy  testimonials  of  approba- 
tion (y.^oTog).  Vain  ecclesiastics,  men  whose  hearts  were 
not  full  of  the  Ijoly  cause  they  professed,  made  it  the  chief 
or  only  aim  of  their  discourses  to  secure  the  applause  of 
such  hearers,  and  hence  labored  solely  to  display  their 
brilliant  eloquence  or  wit,  to  say  something  with  point  and 
effect.  But  many  of  the  better  class,  too, — such  men  as 
Gregory  of  Nazianzen,  —  could  not  wholly  overcome  the 
vanity  which  this  custom  tended  to  foster,  and  thus  fell  into 
the  mistake  of  being  too  rhetorical  in  their  sermons.  Men 
of  holy  seriousness,  like  Chrysostom,  strongly  rebuked  this 
declamatory  and  theatrical  style,  and  said  that  through  such 
vanity  the  whole  Christian  cause  would  come  to  be  suspected 
by  the  heathens.  Many  short-hand  writers  eagerly  em- 
ployed themselves  in  taking  down,  on  the  spot,  the  dis- 
courses of  famous  speakers  in  order  to  give  them  a  wider 
circulation.  The  sermons  were  sometimes,  though  rarely, 
read  off  entirely  from  notes,  or  committed  to  memory ; 
sometimes  they  were  freely  delivered,  after  a  plan  prepared 
beforehand ;  and  sometimes  they  were  altogether  extem- 
porary. The  last  w^e  learn  incidentally,  from  being  informed 
that  Augustine  was  occasionally  directed  to  the  choice  of  a 
subject  by  the  passage  which  the  '  prjelector '  had  selected 
for  reading;  when,  as  he  tells  us,  he  was  sometimes  urged, 
by  some  impressions  of  the  moment,  to  give  his  sermon  a 
different  turn  from  what  he  had  originally  proposed.  We 
are  also  informed  by  Chrysostom  that  his  subject  was  fre- 
quently suggested  to  him  by  something  he  met  with  on  his 
way  to  church,  or  which  suddenly  occurred  during  divine 
service."  1  Reference  is  made  in  a  note  to  a  sermon  of 
Chrysostom,  chosen  on  his  way  to  church,  w^hen  he  saw,  in 
the  winter,  lying  in  the  vicinity  of  the  church,  many  sick 

'  Neander's  Church  Hist.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  316. 


§  3.       HISTORY    or   PREACHING.  35 

persons  and  beggars  ;  and,  touched  with  pity,  he  felt  con- 
strained to  exhort  his  hearers  to  works  of  brotherly  kindness 
and  charity,  and  also  reference  is  made  to  the  turn  given  to 
his  discourse  when  the  lighting  of  the  lamps  drew  away 
the  attention  of  his  hearers. 

5.  We  cannot  enter  here  into  any  lengthened  analysis  of 
the  pulpit  orators  of  the  period  just  mentioned.  We  will 
notice  briefly  but  two  of  the  greatest  of  them,  representing 
the  Eastern  and  Western  churches.  Chrysosto?n  was  gifted 
by  nature  with  splendid  oratorical  talents,  with  a  fiery  vital- 
ity, a  bold,  penetrative  intellect,  a  pungent  wit,  the  graphic 
power  of  the  imagination,  and  a  deep  original  genius.  He 
had,  too,  the  training  of  the  most  distinguished  rhetorician 
of  his  day,  Libanius  of  Antioch,  who  was  also  the  teacher 
of  Basil  and  of  Gregory  Nazianzen.  As  far  as  he  could 
imitate  any  one,  he  built  himself  upon  the  apostle  Paul  as  a 
preacher ;  and  he  had  the  same  ministerial  zeal  burning  in 
his  heart.  He  said,  "It  is  the  firm  resolve  of  my  soul,  as 
long  as  I  breathe,  and  as  long  as  it  pleaseth  God  to  continue 
me  in  this  present  life,  to  perform  this  service,  whether  I 
am  listened  to  or  not,  to  do  that  which  the  Lord  hath  com- 
manded me."  He  felt  that  he  had  a  special  call  to  be  a 
preacher  of  Christ  —  of  Christ,  not  only  in  his  divine,  but 
in  his  human  nature.  The  moral  element  of  Christianity 
entered  largely  into  his  preaching,  and  he  sought,  above  all, 
to  impress  the  practical  truths  of  religion,  and  to  gain  influ- 
ence over  men  for  their  spiritual  welfare.  He  preached  on 
Christian  works  as  well  as  on  Christian  faith,  dwelling  con- 
stantly on  the  life,  pouring  out  the  treasures  of  his  heart 
upon  the  loveliness  of  the  image  of  Christ  in  the  believer's 
character,  and  striving  to  build  up  this  inward  Christ-like 
life  in  the  hearts  of  his  hearers.  "  In  him  we  find  a  most 
complete  mutual  interpretation  of  theoretical  and  i)ractical 
theology,  as  well  as  of  the  dogmatical  and  ethical  elements, 
exhibited  mainlj'^  in  the  fusion  of  the  exegetical  and  homi- 
letical.     Hence   his  exesresis  was  guarded  against  barren 


36  PRE  ACHING. 

philology  and  dogma,  and  his  pulpit  discourse  was  free  from 
doctrinal  abstraction  and  empty  rhetoric.  The  introduction 
of  the  knowledge  of  Christianity  from  the  sources  into  the 
practical  life  of  the  people  left  him  little  time  for  the  devel- 
opment of  special  dogmas."  ^ 

He  had  a  deep  insight  into  the  human  heart,  and  under- 
stood men  of  all  classes  and  characters.  He  was  a  fearless 
rebuker  of  sin  in  high  places,  when  it  was  a  perilous  thing 
to  attack  vice  clothed  with  imperial-arbitrary  power.  Yet 
from  contemporary  testimony,  and  from  the  testimony  of 
the  sermons  we  have,  his  preaching,  which  made  the  dome 
of  St.  Sophia  ring  Avith  its  rhythmical  periods,  was  charac- 
terized by  the  noblest  eloquence,  as  vigorous,  direct,  and 
vehement  as,  but  far  more  copious  than,  that  of  Demos- 
thenes, rich  in  the  play  of  imagination,  and  at  times  in- 
expressibly tender  and  pathetic.  His  discourses,  like  those 
of  Augustine,  rise  into  high  devotional  flights,  where  the 
incomprehensible  nature  of  God  occupies  all  his  thoughts, 
and  the  human  audience  is  lost  sight  of;  but,  as  a  general 
thing,  the  practical,  the  pastoral,  the  missionary  element 
prevails  in  them  —  that  of  the  shepherd  of  souls,  of  the 
leader  and  guardian  of  the  church  of  God.  He  glories  in 
his  work  oi  jpreacJiing  tlie  goi^i^el  to  the  poor!  He  varied  his 
style  of  preaching  —  now  using  homely  and  familiar  lan- 
guage ;  at  another  time,  more  stirring,  splendid,  and  ener- 
getic language ;  and  at  another  time,  metaphysical  and  ab- 
struse ;  for  he  said  that  the  table  of  the  gospel  feast  should 
be  covered  Avith  various  dishes,  and  the  banquet  should  be 
like  the  divine  generosity  of  the  Giver.  He  was  eminently 
a  biblical  preacher,  making,  as  did  Origen  and  all  the  great 
preachers,  the  interpretation  of  the  Word  the.  basis  of  his 
argument,  elevating  the  gospel  above  philosophy,  having 
the  evangelic  spirit  in  his  preaching ;  still,  there  is  philos- 
ophy in  his  preaching,  and  he  appeals  to  general  principles, 

.  '  Neander,  quoted  by  Schaflf,  vol.  iii.,  p.  937. 


§  3.       HISTORY   OF   PREACHING.  37 

and  wields  the  whole  truth  with  power  in  its  particular  ap- 
plications. He  had  the  free  spirit  of  the  Alexandrian  school 
of  theologians,  whose  works  he  deeply  studied.  He  be- 
longed to  the  polemic  and  apologetic  age  of  the  church, 
and  was  thus  led,  in  his  life  of  mental  and  spiritual  strife, 
in  opposition  to  the  false  philosophies  of  the  age,  to  medi- 
tate upon  and  to  bring  out  the  profounder  harmonies  of 
truth ;  but  he  was  such  a  loyal,  practical,  pointed  Scrip- 
tural preacher,  of  the  true  apostolic  stamp,  that  he  awoke 
a  deadly  opposition  in  the  corrupt  circle  of  the  demoralized 
Greek  church,  which  finally  destroyed  him.  The  style  of 
his  sermonizing,  undeniably,  was  rhetorical,  but  his  preach- 
ing was  rhetoric  in  its  best  sense,  being  the  persuasive  com- 
munication of  truth.  He  studied  his  sermons  with  care, 
preparing  himself  to  preach  by  a  thorough  exegesis  of  the 
Scriptures,  meditation,  and  prayer.  From  his  habit  of 
expository  preaching,  all  his  discourses  do  not  have  an 
elaborate  method  or  plan,  and  they  are  often  rambling  and 
diffuse ;  but  they  are  pervaded  by  an  earnest  aim,  by  the 
desire  to  build  up  the  church  of  Christ,  to  reform  its  cor- 
ruptions, to  vindicate  the  gospel  against  heathen  philoso- 
phy, and  to  pluck  souls  from  the  depths  of  sin  and  unbe- 
lief in  which  they  were  sunken.  Sometimes,  he  preaches 
on  a  particular  subject  or  proposition  with  something  of 
the  strict  order  of  a  classical  discourse ;  but  generally  he 
is  more  free,  and  speaks  the  thought  to  which  the  Scripture 
or  the  occasion  gives  rise.  His  sermons,  like  most  of  those 
previous  to  his  time,  were  rather  simply  loyoi,  (addresses, 
spoken  words,  upon  the  scriptural  lesson)  than  ofuhui,  set 
discourses. 

He  preached  to  the  popular  heart,  and  no  preacher  ever 
had  a  more  unbounded  popularity ;  the  people  were  often 
completely  carried  away  by  his  eloquence,  and  acted  like 
drunken  persons ;  they  said,  when  he  was  about  to  be 
banished,  "  Better  that  the  sun  should  cease  to  shine  than 
that  our  Chrysostom's  mouth  should  be  stopped;"  even 
4 


38  PREACHING. 

the  cold  Gibbon  praises  his  golden  eloquence,  and,  as 
another  has  said,  "  his  tongue  flowed  like  the  stream  of 
the  Nile."' 

Augustine  was  the  culmination  of  the  patristic  age  as 
a  theologian  and  preacher,  and  was,  taken  altogether,  sur- 
passed perhaps  by  none.  Though  one  of  the  most  profound 
thinkers  of  the  Christian  church,  and  an  original  seeker  in 
the  vast  problems  of  theology,  as  well  as  a  brilliant  rheto- 
rician and  dialectician,  he  was  as  a  preacher  uncommonly 
simple  and  direct.  Most  of  his  sermons  are  so  plain  in 
their  style,  and  so  biblical  and  spiritual  in  their  themes, 
that  they  could  be  preached  with  effect  at  this  day ;  they 
have  that  freshness  which  springs  from  the  central  life  of 
Christian  truth.  They  are  full  of  the  expression  of  devo- 
tional feeling,  often  rising  to  the  highest  sublimity.  There 
is  in  his  discourses  no  rigidly  logical  plan, — for  he  followed 
the  rhetorical  rather  than  the  logical  order,  —  but  there  is 
evident  unity  of  aim.      While   always  drawn  from   some 

^  Of  the  many  "  homilies  "  which  we  have  of  Chryscstom,  twelve  are  upon 
the  "  Incomprehensible  Nature  of  God ;  "  eight  against  the  Jews  and  Heathen, 
to  prove  that  "Christ  is  God;"  seven  upon  Lazarus;  twenty-one  upon  Idol 
Statues,  addressed  to  the  people  of  Antioch;  nine  upon  Repentance;  seven 
in  eulogy  of  the  apostle  Paul,  and  twenty-five  upon  the  Saints  and  Martyrs; 
thirty-four  principally  upon  certain  passages  in  the  New  Testament;  sixty- 
seven  upon  Genesis ;  sixty  upon  the  Psalms ;  six  upon  Isaiah ;  ninety-one 
upon  Matthew ;  eighty-seven  upon  John  ;  twenty-five  upon  the  Acts  ;  thirty- 
two  upon  Romans  ;  forty-four  upon  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  ;  thirty 
upon  the  Second  ;  twenty-four  upon  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  ;  fifteen  upon 
Philippians  ;  twelve  upon  Colossians  ;  eleven  upon  the  First,  nxiAfive  upon  the 
Second  Book  of  Thessalonians ;  eighteen  upon  the  First,  and  ten  upon  the 
Second  Epistle  to  Timothy ;  six  upon  the  Epistle  to  Titus,  and  three  upon  that 
to  Philemon ;  thirty-four  upon  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews ;  a  great  number 
upon  special  occasions,  the  most  interesting  of  which,  historically,  are  those 
that  relate  to  his  first  and  second  exiles.  His  most  eloquent  sermons  are  those 
upon  Lazarus,  upon  Images,  upon  Repentance,  upon  the  History  of  David 
and  Saul,  upon  the  Gospel  of  Matthew,  upon  the  Parable  of  the  Debtor, 
upon  the  Forgiveness  of  Enemies,  upon  Almsgiving,  upon  Future  Blessed- 
ness. Chrysostom  aimed  to  explain  the  entire  word  of  God,  following  it 
book  by  book,  text  by  text.  —  Paniel,  Geschichte  der  Christlichen  Beredsam- 
keit,  vol.  i.,  p.  609. 


§   3.       HISTORY   OF    PEEACHING.  39 

portion  of  the  Word  of  God,  they  do  not  always  seem  to 
be  built  upon  particular  texts ;  and  yet  one  text  is  usually 
prominently  brought  forward  near  the  beginning  of  the 
sermon,  and  this  appears  to  be  the  main  text  around  which 
other  passages  of  Scripture  are  grouped,  and  about  which 
the  sermon  itself  revolves.  As  the  moral  element  was 
prominent  in  Chrysostom's  preaching,  so  in  Augustine's 
preaching  the  doctrinal  or  doginatic  element  predominated, 
and  from  his  example  it  has  entered  and  ruled  in  the  Chris- 
tian pulpit  to  this  day.  He  also,  however,  like  Chrysos- 
tom,  preached  to  the  popular  heart,  and  was  above  oratori- 
cal vanity,  or  the  ambition  to  be  considered  eloquent,  though 
his  sermons  show  the  effect  of  rhetorical  and  philosophical 
training.  "  He  often  preached  five  days  in  succession, 
sometimes  twice  a  day^j  and  set  it  as  the  object  of  his 
preaching  that  all  might  live  with  him,  and  he  with  all, 
in  Christ.  Wherever  he  went  in  Africa  he  was  begged  to 
preach  the  word  of  salvation."' 

Ambrose  of  Milan  was  also  an  accomplished  and  power- 
ful preacher,  cultivated  by  all  that  the  schools  could  do  for 
him,  but  far  more  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  he  was  charac- 
terized by  dignity  and  unction.  As  an  exegete,  however, 
from  his  ardent  study  of  Origen's  writings,  he  had  a  fatal 
'tendency  to  allegorical  interpretation. 

Athanasius,  Basil,  Gregory  of  Nazianzen,  Gregory  of 
JSfyssa,  Macarius,  Jerome,  and  many  other  renowned  preach- 
ers of  the  Eastern  and  Western  churches,  belong  to  this 
period;  and  while  these  were,  many  of  them,  thoroughly 
educated  and  skilful  orators,  they  subordinated  their  elo- 
quence and  art  to  the  higher  purpose  of  preachiug  Christ 
intelligibly  to  the  people ;  and  thus  their  rhetorical  and 
philosophical  culture  enriched  but  did  not  weaken  them 
as  religious  teachers. 

Athanasius  sternly  rebuked  the  ambitious  style  of  some 

'  Schaff's  Hist.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  994. 


40  PREACHING. 

of  the  preaching  of  the  day.  He  said,  "If  the  church  were 
an  audience  for  the  hearing  of  orators,  then  eloquent  words 
would  be  in  place ;  but  since  it  was  a  place  of  contention 
for  the  highest  achievements  of  piety,  words  were  not  so 
much  needed  there  as  good  conduct." 

Indeed,  accounts  are  given  us  of  the  degraded  character 
of  the  clergy  of  the  Roman  Empire,  East  and  West,  during 
the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries.  Gregory  of  Nazianzeu  says, 
"No  longer  the  most  worthy,  but  the  most  powerful,  take 
the  episcopal  ofBce ; "  and  Jerome  also  speaks  of  mau}'^  of 
the  bishops  and  lower  orders  of  the  ministry,  that  "  with 
their  scented  clothing  and  luxurious  manners,  they  were 
more  like  brides^rooms  than  ministers  of  Christ." 

During  this  period,  however,  in  spite  of  all  imperfec- 
tions and  errors,  preaching  Avas  an  important  element  in 
spreading  and  establishing  the  Christian  faith.  It  was  not 
confined  to  the  Sabbath,  but  there  was  frequent  preaching 
during  the  week,  especially  on  feast  and  fast  seasons,  and 
on  the  commemoration  days  of  martyrs,  and  on  ordina- 
tion occasions.  The  system  of  expository  preaching,  of 
explaining  whole  books  of  Scripture,  enabled  ministers  to 
preach  thus  continuously  day  after  day.  Certainly  in  the 
first  five,  and  even  perhaps  six,  centuries  of  the  church, 
there  was,  with  all  errors  and  superstitions,  an  earnest  de-" 
sire  to  interpret  and  set  forth  the  word  of  God  to  men ; 
and  this  was  undoubtedly  the  chief  purpose  and  aim  of  the 
great  preachers  we  have  mentioned. 

6.  When  we  come  down  as  late  as  the  seventh  century, 
we  find  that  preaching  was  beginning  to  sink  to  those  depths 
of  degradation  which  continued  to  grow  more  and  more 
profound,  even  to  the  time  of  the  Reformation.  The  idea 
«f  bringing  the  Word  of  God  to  bear  directly  on  the  mind 
and  heart  of  the  people  was  more  and  more  lost  sight  of, 
though  it  was  not  as  yet  entirely  lost.  In  the  middle  of 
the  eighth  century,  at  the  council  of  Cloveshire,  for  exam- 
ple, constituted  for  the  reformation  of  abuses  in  the  Eng- 


§   3.      HISTORY   OF   PREACHING.  41 

lish  church,  preaching  was  declared  by  the  bishops  to  be 
a  duty  whenever  they  visited  the  different  churches ;  they 
implied,  however,  by  this  fact,  that  in  the  interval  of  these 
pastoral  visitations,  the  people  had  no  public  religious  in- 
struction. Afterwards,  Charlemagne,  in  his  time,  exhorted 
his  clergy  to  preach  on  certain  occasions ;  and  Alcuin,  his 
adviser,  especially  strove  to  renew  this  duty,  which  had 
almost  follen  into  complete  disuse  in  the  German  and  Gal- 
lic churches ;  but  where  preaching  was  renewed,  those  who 
preached  —  the  bishops  themselves  —  were  rude  and  un- 
learned men,  and  public  worship  had  become  a  round  of 
senseless  forms  and  ceremonials.  True  preaching  had  lost 
its  important  place  in  worship ;  its  light  was  put  out  in  the 
temple.  Certain  "postils"  as  they  were  called,  delivered 
after  the  reading  of  Scripture,  were  short  discourses  or 
commonplaces  that  were  manufactured  to  be  recited  by 
the  preacher.  They  had  for  their  principal  themes  the 
authorit}^  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  church,  the  glory  of  the 
Virgin,  the  efficacy  of  relics,  the  flames  of  Purgatory,  the 
utility  of  indulgences,  and  similar  topics. 

In  the  7iinfh  century,  at  the  councils  of  Mayence  and 
Langres,  some  earnest  effort  seems  to  have  been  made  to 
renew  the  office  of  regular  preaching  in  the  church  ;  and  it 
was  decreed  that  the  Christian  faith  should  be  tauo^ht  to 
the  people,  and  the  Bible  expounded  in  their  vernacular, 
in  such  a  wa}^  that  the}^  could  understand  what  was  spoken. 
These,  however,  were  but  transient  efforts,  gleams  athwart 
the  darkness,  that  did  not  influence  the  deep  prevailing  want 
of  religious  instruction  from  the  pulpit ;  and  all  that  related 
to  public  worship  grew  more  and  more  sensuous  and  puer- 
ile. From  the  tivelftli  to  the  fourteenth  centuries,  there  was 
much  preaching  in  the  common  tongue  by  itinerant  friars 
of  a  highly  fanatical  kind.  They  dealt  with  the  fears 
and  superstitions  of  the  people,  who  were  indeed  but  chil- 
dren in  their  hands.  One  of  the  chief  aims  of  this  preach- 
ing was  to  induce  the  people  to  enter  upon  the  church's 
4* 


42  PREACHING. 

pilgrimages  and  crusades.  Tliat  was  the  time  of  Peter  the 
Hermit,  and  of  the  greater  and  truly  eloquent  8t.  Bernard, 
Abbot  of  Clairvaux.  With  the  exception  of  here  and  there 
such  a  man  of  native  genius,  and  true,  though  misguided, 
zeal,  preaching  was  generally  but  the  blind  leading  the  blind. 
Brawling  and  ignorant  priests  used  their  spiritual  author- 
ity, and  their  office  as  leaders  of  the  people,  to  foment 
discords  in  the  state,  to  fasten  the  chains  of  ecclesiastical 
tyranny  more  firmly,  and  to  carry  out  their  own  crafty 
and  evil  purposes.  The  period  even  immediately  preced- 
ing the  Reformation,  witnessed  a  most  profound  depth  of 
degradation  in  the  manner  and  matter  of  preaching.  The 
harangues  of  the  pulpit  were  addressed  to  the  lowest  pas- 
sions, and,  above  all,  to  the  sentiment  of  the  marvellous; 
and  they  consisted  in  the  detailing  of  absurd  legends  hatched 
in  the  brains  of  half  cunning,  half  fanatical  monks,  in  the 
cells  of  monasteries.  Mummeries  and  bufiboneries  were 
enacted  in  the  pulpit.  Anything  like  a  pious  sentiment 
was  considered  insupportable  ;  and  at  the  Easter  season 
especially,  preachers  taxed  their  ingenuity  to  invent  all 
kinds  of  fables,  odd  stories,  and  vulgar  witticisms,  to  amuse 
the  audience,  and  to  excite  roars  of  laughter. 

There  were,  of  course,  as  we  have  hinted,  all  through  the 
middle  ages,  some  eloquent  and  able  preachers  in  the  Romish 
church,  such  as  Nicholas  of  Basle,  John  Tauter^  and  Henry 
8uso  the  Dominican,  and,  above  all,  Wickliffe  and  Huss,  in 
the  fourteenth  and  ffteenth  centuries,  who  were  especially 
powerful  because  in  them  the  truth  burned  in  the  darkness, 
because  they  were  reformers  before  the  Reformation ;  but, 
generally  speaking,  preaching  had  come  to  such  a  pass,  that 
when  Luther  arose,  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, he  saw  the  necessity  of  reforming  not  only  the  church, 
but  the  pulpit  itself,  and  the  church  through  the  pulpit. 

7.  Luther  reintroduced  into  preaching  biblical  truth  — 
in  a  word,  the  evangelical  element.  He  also  brought  into 
the  pulpit  a  new  and  elevated  spirit,  and  plucked  up  preach- 


§  3.      HISTORY   OF   PREACHING.  43 

ing  from  the  mire  into  which  it  had  fallen,  and  reinstated 
it  as  the  central  light  in  the  house  of  God.  He  restored 
the  true  idea  of  preaching,  viz.,  to  bring  divine  truth  to 
bear  upon  the  conscience  and  sympathies  of  men.  He 
returned  to  the  source  of  power,  to  the  Word  of  God.  He 
was  ^^ mighty  in  the  Scriptures"  The  great  work  which 
he  did,  though  aided  and  confirmed  by  his  writings,  was 
chiefly  carried  forward  by  his  preaching ;  and  this  accounts 
for  the  roughness,  harshness,  coarseness  often,  of  his  style 
of  preaching.  "His  w^ords  were  half  battles."  He  said 
of  himself  and  of  his  preaching,  "  I  was  born  to  fight  with 
devils  and  factions.  This  is  the  reason  that  my  writings 
are  so  boisterous  and  stormy.  It  is  my  business  to  remove 
obstructions,  to  cut  down  thorns,  to  fill  up  quagmires,  and 
to  open  and  make  straight  the  paths ;  but  if  I  must,  neces- 
sarily, have  some  failing,  let  me  rather  speak  the  truth  with 
too  great  severity  than  once  to  act  the  hypocrite  and  con- 
ceal the  truth."  The  chief  source  of  his  power  as  a  preacher, 
next  to  his  fidelity  to  the  word  of  truth,  to  the  essence  and 
life  of  the  gospel,  was  his  vast  emotional  power,  his  pas- 
sion, his  immense  vitality.  His  was  a  great  nature,  full  of 
great  afiections  and  great  feelings.  His  sermons  remind 
one,  in  some  respects,  of  those  of  Augustine,  upon  whom 
he  modelled  himself.  They  are  plain  and  practical,  spring- 
ing from  the  running  exposition  of  Scripture,  often  with- 
out any  particular  text;  but  still,  as  a  general  rule,  all 
the  principal  parts  of  the  sermon  —  the  text,  the  theme, 
the  exposition,  the  argument,  and  the  application  —  are 
found  in  his  discourses.  A  large  jDortion  of  them  are 
upon  doctrinal  subjects  —  upon  the  nature  of  God,  the 
Trinity,  the  creation;  upon  sin,  justification  by  faith,  and 
the  character  and  work  of  Christ ;  upon  the  church  and 
its  sacraments  —  but  all,  with  a  strong  controversial  drift, 
mingling  the  contests  that  then  were  going  on  with  the 
older  conflict  of  light  and  darkness,  of  God  and  his  enemy. 
He  did  not  despise  the  aids  of  learning  and  rhetoric  in 


44  PREACHING, 

preaching,  nor,  indeed,  any  other  lawful  weapon  ;  such  as 
figurative  illustration,  allegory,  irony,  and  wit.  He  intro- 
duced nature  into  the  pulpit,  as  well  as  learning  and  faith. 
The  preaching,  also,  of  Zwingle,  Calvin^  and  Farel,  of 
Bucer,  Barnes^  Knox,  Cranmer,  Latimer,  Jewel,  Hooper, 
and  the  other  English  Reformers,  aided  to  restore  the  dig- 
nit3%  earnestness,  and  biblical  authority  of  the  pulpit.  The 
preaching  of  the  Reformation,  wherever  its  seeds  were  car- 
ried, was  characterized  by  its  hihlical  element,  its  direct- 
ness, its  freedom  from  ecclesiastical  forms,  its  plain  style, 
and  its  robust  energy.  It  did  not  deal  so  much  in  moral 
or  subjective  views  of  truth  as  in  its  objective  doctrinal 
aspects ;  but  the  mind,  freed  from  its  fetters,  stood  erect 
again,  and  transmitted  the  message  of  God  with  apostolic 
power  and  boldness.  This,  also,  was  the  period  of  the 
revival  of  letters ;  and,  though  feebly  at  first,  yet  with  in- 
creasing strength,  the  influence  of  the  renewed  stud}'-  of 
the  classic  models  was  felt  upon  Christian  eloquence,  and 
entered  more  and  more  into  the  structure  and  style  of  the 
sermon.  The  sermon  began  soon  to  lose  somewhat  of  its 
biblical  life  and  pure  evangelic  element,  until,  much  later, 
in  the  age  of  German  and  French  illumiuism,  in  the  seven- 
teentli  and  eighteenth  centuries,  it  had  become  nothing  better 
than  polished  puerility,  when  preachers  preached  upon  agri- 
culture, the  raising  of  tobacco,  and  the  Copernican  system. 
The  French  church  in  particular  fostered  this  classic  barren- 
ness and  varnished  impiety.  The  English  pulpit  was  saved 
from  this  curse,  in  a  great  measure,  by  the  early  infusion 
into  it  of  the  Puritan  element,  when  such  profound  and 
earnest  preachers  as  Howe,  Baxter,  Flavel,  Owen,  arose. 
Each  reformed  nation,  however,  retained  something  of  its 
original  spiritual  life  and  pulpit  power,  and  became  at  length 
intellectually  represented  or  expressed  by  its  own  peculiar 
style  of  preaching.  In  Germany,  France,  England,  Scot- 
land, and  afterward  in  America,  the  shaping  influence  of 
the  national  mind,  unbound  by  freer  Protestant  influences, 


§  3.      HISTORY   OF  PREACHING.  43- 

acted  powerfully  on  the  type  of  preaching  in  these  sev- 
eral countries,  and  this  reacted  on  the  political,  intellect- 
ual, and  social  character  of  the  civilization  of  these  several 
nations. 

8.  The  German  pnlpit  still  retains  something  of  the  free- 
dom, fire,  and  naturalness  of  Luther's  style,  being  charac- 
terized by  its  lively  exposition  of  the  word  of  God,  accom- 
panied with  much  emotional  glow.  The  German  mind,  from 
the  earliest  times  till  now,  is  distinguished  above  all  by  its 
power  of  sympathy,  and  this  is  shown  in  German  preach- 
ing; while,  singularly  enough,  the  metaphysical  taste  of  the 
German  mind  is  more  rarely  shown  in  its  preaching.  The 
German  sermon  is  generally  expository  or  hortatory,  rather 
than  analytic  and  didactic ;  it  gives  considerable  play  to  the 
imagination,  and  in  its  plan  and  substance  is  sinipler  than 
the  English  or  French  sermon.  There  is,  however,  a  class 
of  more  modern  German  preachers,  such  as  ScJdeiermachei\ 
Mailer,  and  TJioluck,  in  whose  sermons  much  of  the  Ger- 
man subjectivity  and  philosophic  cast  of  mind  is  seen ;  but 
even  in  these  there  is  a  child-like  simplicity  and  a  devotional 
feeling  which  have  not  been  entirely  extinguished  by  learn- 
ing and  thought. 

9.  The  French  pulpit  is  classic  and  brilliant.  Jacques 
Saurin,  who  is,  perhaps,  its  most  eloquent  Protestant  rep- 
resentative (though  his  ministerial  life  w^as  sj^ent  at  the 
Hague),  aimed  at  the  great  end  of  preaching  —  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  men.  He  therefore  stands  higher  as  an  evangel- 
ical preacher,  though  not  as  an  orator,  than  most  of  the 
great  Catholic  French  preachers.  He  was  one  of  the  first 
Protestant  preachers  who  adorned  the  plain,  didactic  method 
of  the  Reformed  pulpit  with  the  ornaments  of  eloquence.^ 
His  sermons  have  an  elaborate  method,  and  are  built  on 
the  plan  of  a  classic  oration ;  indeed,  he  rarely  puts  off  his 
oratorical  robes.     His  "  introductions  "  are  often  very  beau- 

'  Histoire  de  la  Predication  aux  Dix-septieme  Siocle,  p.  599. 


46  PREACHING. 

tiful,  and  ho  follows  the  strictly  logical  method  in  the  devel- 
opment. His  style  is  clear,  vivid,  energetic,  at  times  almost 
rough,  and  rather  deficient  in  pathos  and  unction.  He 
opened  the  field  of  Christian  ethics  more  widely  and  boldly 
than  his  predecessors,  but  he  was,  more  than  all,  and  in 
spite  of  all,  an  earnest,  practical  preacher  of  the  gospel. 

We  usually  think  of  the  French  pulpit  in  connection  with 
the  brilliant  and  world-famous  names  of  the  great  Roman 
Catholic  preachers ;  but  there  was  also  a  class  of  noble 
French  contemporaneous  Protestant  preachers,  who  are  too 
often  overlooked.  Bossuet  said  of  Calvin,  who  belonged 
to  an  earlier  date,  ^'  son  style  est  triste;  "'  but  Calvin,  stern 
theologian  though  he  was,  was  yet  a  great  preacher.  He 
had  a  style  totally  bare  of  ornament,  and  with  no  ray  of 
imagination,  thouo;h  he  lived  within  the  shadow  of  Mont 
Blanc ;  but  his  preaching  was  weighty  with  biblical  truth, 
clear  in  reasoning,  and  burning  with  an  intense  purpose. 
Coming  after  him,  and  possessing  much  of  his  spirit,  from 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  to  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  there  are  names  of  many  men  of  remarkable  power 
as  preachers — Pierre  du  Moulin,  MicJiel  de  Faucheur,  Jean 
Mestrezat,  Jean  Claude,  Pierre  du  Pose,  and  others.  They 
were  pastors  of  the  French  Protestant  church  in  times  of  its 
distress  and  persecution,  when  it  was  "the  church  in  the  wil- 
derness." They  were  also  statesmen,  and  leaders  and  coun- 
sellors of  the  people  ;  they  were — that  is,  the  earliest  of  them 
—  somewhat  rude  in  style,  but  solid,  scriptural,  full  of  the 
primitive  fire.  Their  sermons  are  generally  a  continuous 
exegesis  of  the  text,  which  they  evolve,  explain,  and  enforce 
with  all  their  power,  depending  on  the  truth  to  perform  its 
own  work  in  men's  hearts.  Like  the  English  Puritans,  whom 
they  much  resemble,  they  preached  to  the  conscience,  but 
they  had  more  directness,  liveliness,  and  simplicity.  The 
oratorical  and  literary  elements  were,  mostly,  lacking  in  their 

'  Histoire  de  la  Predication  aux  Dix-septieme  Siecle,  p.  3. 


§    3.       HISTORY    OF   PREACHING.  47 

preaching,  but  those  qualities  were  replaced  by  masculine 
plainness  and  vehemence.  Men  of  martyr-spirit,  they 
spoke  with  irresistible  power  in  times  of  persecution  for  the 
truth's  sake.  Du  Moulin  was  looked  upon  as  a  formidable 
antaofonist  of  the  Romish  church,  and  Claude  was  considered 
to  be  a  match,  in  controversy,  for  Bossuet  himself. 

These  preachers  were  not  far  removed  from  the  first  heat 
of  the  Reformation,  and  they  preached  with  a  feai'less  ear- 
nestness that  counted  all  things  loss  for  Christ's  sake  and 
the  gospel's.  Saurin,  of  whom  we  have  spoken,  and  who 
fell  upon  later  and  more  peaceful  days,  finishes  the  list  of 
great  Protestant  preachers  ;  and  he  showed  their  spirit. 

The  more  widely  known  and  celebrated  French  Catholic 
divines  are  headed  by  Bossuet,  "the  Eagle  of  Meaux,"  He 
has  been  not  unjustly  compared  to  Demosthenes.  His  ser- 
mons abound  in  passages  of  the  utmost  grandeur  and  force. 
His  six  "oraisons  funebres"  are  full  of  majesty  of  tone,  and 
have  a  breadth  and  freedom  of  style  far  beyond  that  of  all 
other  French  preachers.  He  despised  the  minute  and  fine- 
spun styles ;  but  his  faults  also  are  great,  having  a  tendency 
to  stage  eflfect,  or  the  false  sublime,  and  to  an  imperious 
harshness  and  virulence  of  language.  He  was  devoted  to 
his  church  rather  than  to  the  simplest  and  highest  objects 
of  preaching,  and  he  was  the  indomitable,  untiring  servant 
of  the  Papacy,  or,  as  he  called  himself,  ^^  Bos  suetus 
aratro" 

Massillon  is  moderate  and  self-contained,  even  in  his 
most  impassioned  and  ardent  utterances ;  and  this  noticea- 
ble "  vis  tem/perata  "  of  Massillon  is  one  chief  source  of  his 
eloquence ;  it  marks  reserved  force  —  a  great  quality  in 
preaching.  Fenelon,  whose  name  cannot  be  mentioned  but 
with  admiration  and  afiection  by  all  who  love  Christ,  united  a 
polished  but  easy  and  natural  style  with  spiritual  simplicity 
and  unction. 

10.  The  English  or  British  pulpit  is  excelled  by  none  in 
its  great   names.      It  is  robust,   practical,   sober,   direct; 


48  PEEACHIXG. 

though  it  is  uot  without  its  highly  speculative  and  even 
mystical  side.  Its  greatest  preachers  lived  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  which  was  the  golden  age  of  the  English 
IDulpit,  when  the  Puritan  strength  and  tire,  caught  from 
direct  communion  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  were  still  unadul- 
terated. Even  in  the  latter  portion  of  the  previous  century, 
during  the  fires  of  the  Reformation  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  the 
emancipation  of  the  English  mind  showed  itself  in  the  new 
vigor  and  spiritual  freedom  of  the  pulpit,  and  many  de- 
voted preachers  of  the  pure  gospel,  like  Joltn  Rogers^ 
Henry  Smith,  Bernard  Gilpin,  were  true  precursors  of  the 
more  learned  and  eloquent  of  the  Puritan  divines  of  the 
next  reigns,  whose  preaching  was  massive  in  philosophic 
thought,  with  a  hard  rind  of  controversial  theology,  but 
informed  and  instinct  in  every  part  with  spiritual  light  and 
living  energy  —  the  age  of  John  Howe,  Flavel,  Calamy, 
Owe7iy  Bates,  Charnock,  Baxter,  and  their  powerful  com- 
peers of  the  Church  party,  Hooker,  Donne,  Bishop  Hall^ 
South,  Barrow,  Jeremy  Taylor,  Leighton.  Hooker  and 
Donne,  it  is  true,  belong  also  to  a  somewhat  earlier  period, 
and  they  possess  much  of  the  richness  and  power  of  the 
wonderful  Elizabethan  age  of  intellectual  development.  Old 
Fuller  says  of  Hooker,  "Mr.  Hooker  his  voice  was  low, 
stature  little,  gesture  none  at  all,  standing  stone  still  in  the 
pulpit,  as  if  the  posture  of  his  body  were  the  emblem  of  his 
mind,  immovable  in  his  opinions.  Where  his  eye  was  left 
fixed  at  the  beginning,  it  was  found  fixed  at  the  end  of  his 
sermon ;  in  a  word,  the  doctrine  he  delivered  had  nothing 
but  itself  to  garnish  it.  His  style  was  long  and  pithy,  driv- 
ins:  on  a  whole  flock  of  several  clauses  before  he  came  to 
the  close  of  a  sentence.  So  that,  when  the  copiousness  of 
his  style  met  not  with  proportionable  capacity  in  his  audi- 
tors, it  was  unjustly  censured  for  perplext,  tedious,  and  ob- 
scure. His  sermons  followed  the  inclination  of  his  studies, 
and  were  for  the  most  part  on  controversies  and  deep  points 
of  school  divinity." 


§  3.      HISTORY   OF   PEEACHING.  49 

In  the  other  preachers  of  this  period  there  was  a  rich 
phiy  of  the  imagination,  and  often  great  eloquence  :  perhaps 
there  are  no  passages  of  more  eloquence  to  be  found  in  the 
sermons  of  any  preacher  than  in  those  of  Dr.  Donne ;  but 
they  are  "purple  patches,"  interwoven  with  a  great  deal  that 
is  rhapsodical  and  feeble.  Charnock  is  vigorous  and  mas- 
culine, perspicuous,  and  oftentimes  profound. 

Of  English  sermonizers,  Robert  South  is  to  be  particu- 
larly noticed.  He  very  much  lacked,  it  is  true,  the  pure 
evangelical  element ;  he  also  lacked  unction,  and  he  had  more 
wit  than  grace  ;  but  he  was,  notwithstanding,  a  great  moral 
reasoner,  reasoning  not  in  dry  scholastic  forms,  but  with 
freedom  and  immense  natural  force,  lashing  vice  with  an 
imsparing  hand.  His  English  style,  for  nervousness,  point, 
masculine  energy,  freedom  from  false  ornament  and  vital 
freshness,  is  incomparable. 

Isaac  Barrow  was  also  a  great  master  of  the  moral- 
descriptive  style  of  preaching ;  but  his  language  does  not 
compare  with  Sonth's  for  condensed  vigor,  and  it  is  over- 
burdened with  qualificatives,  inclining  even  to  verbosity. 

Jeremy  Taylor  cannot  be  judged  of,  superficially  ;  for  he  is 
like  a  mountain  or  a  kingdom.  He  affords  illustrations  of 
all  kinds  of  style,  of  the  best  and  the  worst.  There  is  too 
little  of  clear  doctrinal  truth,  in  his  sermons ;  of  Christ  as 
Intercessor ;  but  still  his  sermons  and  writings  are  vast 
treasures  of  theology,  though  his  works  are  better  adapted 
for  private  reading  and  meditation  than  for  imitation  in  the 
pulpit.  To  read  him  is  like  looking  into  a  gorgeous  sunset ; 
there  is  often  a  vagueness  and  indistinctness  in  the  ideas, 
but  it  is  a  glorious  and  sublime  illumination  of  the  earth  and 
heavens,  an  indescribable  magnificence  of  imagery,  through 
which  his  imao^ination  shines  like  the  sun.  He  might  have 
been  born  in  the  Orient  and  reared  in  a  "garden  of  spices," 
nor  would  David  and  David's  royal  son  have  despised  his 
companionship,  nor  failed  to  acknowledge  the  kinship  of  his 
genius 

5 


50  PREACHING. 

In  the  eighteenth  century,  although  preaching  was  charac- 
terized by  less  richness,  originality,  and  still  less  spontane- 
ity, there  were,  nevertheless,  some  efi'ective  and  faithful 
preachers,  who  saved  the  spiritual  character  of  the  English 
pulpit :  such  men  as  John  Newton,  Thomas  Scott,  Drs.  Watts 
and  Doddridge,  Cecil,  Charles  Simeon,  George  Whitefield, 
and  John  Wesley.  The  last  two  stirred  the  stagnant  atmos- 
phere far  beyond  any  power  of  mere  human  eloquence,  and 
their  influence  is  deeplj^  felt  to  this  day  in  England,  Amer- 
ica, and  the  world.  Whitefield  was  an  accomplished  rhetori- 
cian and  pulpit  orator,  but  it  was  his  intense  earnestness, 
his  burning  desire  to  save  souls,  his  power  of  emotion  and 
sympathy,  his  plain,  pointed,  arousing  appeals  to  the  heart, 
rather  than  his  intellectual  force  or  theological  weight  and 
thought,  which  constituted  his  power. 

There  was  also,  in  this  period,  a  school  of  sound  intel- 
lectual and  philosophic,  though  somewhat  cold,  preachers, 
represented  by  such  men  as  Cudivorth,  More,  Tillotson, 
Stilling fieet ,  Lloyd;  and  these  were  followed  by  another 
school  (their  lineal  successors)  of  still  more  polished  but 
even  less  earnest  and  effective  preachers,  represented  by 
Clarice,  Sherlock,  Blair,  Paley,  and  men  of  that  class,  who 
represented  preeminently  the  "  moiml-essay"  period  of  Eng- 
lish preaching  —  correct,  elegant,  and  superficial.  Indeed, 
at  the  time  of  the  rise  of  the  Methodist  reformation,  there 
were  hut  few  evangelical  and  earnest  preachers  in  all  Eng- 
land. It  is  related  of  the  celebrated  Blackstone,  in  the 
early  part  of  the  reign  of  George  III.,  that  he  went  dili- 
gently through  the  churches  of  London,  and  declared  that 
"  he  did  not  hear  a  single  discourse  which  had  more  Chris- 
tianity in  it  than  the  writings  of  Cicero,  and  that  it  would 
have  been  impossible  for  him  to  discover,  from  what  he 
heard,  whether  the  preacher  was  a  follower  of  Confucius,  of 
Mohammed,  or  of  Christ." 

Nearer  to  our  own  day  arose  a  -class  of  far  more  power- 
ful divines  :  Robert  Hall,  —  the  most  magnificent  of  pulpit 


§   3.       HISTORY    OF    PREACHING.  51 

orators,  though  lacking  somewhat  in  warmth  and  practical 
directness, — John  Foster,  Andrew  Fuller,  William  Jay^ 
and  their  great  Scotch  contemporaries  Edioard  Irving  and 
Thomas  Chalmers.  A  Scotchman  said  of  Dr.  Chahners 
that  "  he  owed  his  power  to  the  activity  and  quantity  of  his 
affections."  He  had,  indeed,  like  Luther,  a  great  nature, 
ample  in  all  its  proportions  of  reason,  sensibility,  and  will; 
there  was  in  him  a  vast  vital  force  ;  and  when  this  was  fully 
aroused  by  the  truths  which  he  preached,  he  carried  all  before 
him,  as  a  river  that  inundates  its  banks. 

The  British  pulpit  of  our  own  day  has  exhibited  many 
men  of  very  decided  power,  such  as,  in  the  established 
church,  Arnold,  Hare,  Whately,  Trench,  Samuel  Wilber- 
force,  Henry  Melville,  John  Henrxj  JSfetmnan  in  his  better 
days,  and  that  matchless  sermonizer,  F.  W.  Robertson; 
among  dissenters,  John  Angell  James,  Dr.  Ha^es,  Baptist 
Noel,  Drs.  Guthrie  and  Candlish,  McCheyne,  3inney,  Dr. 
Cumming,  Dr.  Raleigh,  Charles  Spurgeon.  English  preach- 
ing, it  must  be  said,  has,  generally  speaking,  fallen  into  a 
somewhat  narrower  range  of  ideas,  and  does  not  apjjear  to 
have  the  freedom,  profound  depth,  solid  thought,  or  literary 
splendor  of  its  earlier  days,  being  too  often  intensely  de- 
voted to  an  ecclesiastical  idea ;  and-,  if  it  has  aught  remain- 
ing of  the  old  Puritan  energy  and  assertion  of  the  free 
principle,  it  does  not  always  possess  the  corresponding 
Puritan  spirituality  of  tone.  There  are,  however,  in  all 
the  various  bodies  of  the  English  religious  world,  many 
preachers  of  great  learning  and  originality,  as  well  as  of 
high  earnestness  of  aim,  who  represent  the  advanced  state 
of  religious  thought  in  England. 

O  O  D 

11.  Coming  to  America  and  New  England,  we  find  that, 
while  the  first  ministers  were  educated  and  able  men,  the 
true  leaders  (ly^'ov/nevoi)  of  the  people,  and  men  of  inflexi- 
ble martyr-spirit ;  their  style  of  preaching  was  exceedingly 
scholastic  and  theological,  owing,  perhaps,  to  the  fact  that 
all  the  learning  in  the  community  was  confined  to  the  min- 


52  PREACHING. 

isterial  class;  but,  notwithstanding  this,  such  men  as  the 
Christ-like  Eliot,  John  Cotton,  Thomas  Hooker,  Nathaniel 
Ward,  John  Davenport,  the  Mayhews,  Roger  Williams, 
the  Mathers,  were  preachers  of  marked  power,  and,  in 
most  instances,  of  eminent  piety,  and  highly  learned  for 
their  day,  when  the  people  considered  a  learned  ministry 
to  be  a  first  necessity  of  life  —  as  necessary  as  "  fire  to  a 
smith." 

About  the  beginning  of  the  second  century  after  the  set- 
tlement of  New  England,  there  sprang  up  a  style  of  preach- 
ing far  superior  to  that  of  the  earliest  ministers ;  which, 
for  metaphysical  depth  as  well  as  spiritual  earnestness,  has 
rarely,  if  ever,  been  surpassed.  Its  great  master  and  origi- 
nator was  Jonathan  Edwards,  who  was  followed  by  Hop- 
kins, Bellamy,  Edwards  the  younger,  Emmons,  Dwight, 
and  many  other  noted  preachers  and  theologians,  who 
showed  the  controlling  influence  of  Edwards's  mind,  which 
has,  in  fact,  moulded  the  American  pulpit  in  all  its  essential 
qualities  and  characteristics,  down  even  to  the  present  day. 

The  power  of  Jonathan  Edwards  as  a  preacher  is  repre- 
sented to  have  been  tremendous.  In  his  sermon  on  "the 
Last  Judgment,"  one  of  his  hearers  said  that  he  "  expected, 
when  Mr.  Edwards  stopped,  that  the  heavens  would  open, 
and  the  Judge  descend,  and  the  separation  of  the  righteous 
and  wicked  immediately  take  place."  His  style,  regarded 
in  a  literary  point  of  view,  was  not  finished,  and  was  often, 
on  the  contrary,  hard  and  rugged ;  but  his  clear  mind  shone 
through  it,  and  by  the  pure  force  of  his  mental  vision  he 
made  spiritual  truths  plain.  This  graphic  power,  as  it 
has  been  called,  of  exhibiting  truth  showed  not  only  his 
force  of  thought,  but  his  luminous  and  all-penetrating  im- 
agination. He  felt  the  want  of  early  culture  in  the  art  of 
writing,  and  set  himself  in  middle  life  to  the  work  of  im- 
proving his  style ;  but  thought  was  the  important  element 
of  his  preaching :  he  addressed  chiefly  the  understanding 
and  conscience.     His  sermons  w^ere  carefully  written  with 


§  3.      HISTORY   OF   PEEACHING.  53 

a  methodical  plan.  He  dwelt  on  the  explanation  of  Scrip- 
ture, which  he  presented  as  a  fact  the  most  momentous  to 
the  soul ;  and  his  idea  seemed  to  be  that  the  truth  —  the 
simple  truth  —  made  clear  to  the  mind,  and  there  left,  was 
sufficient  to  do  its  own  work.  He  preached  from  a  divine 
point  of  view,  wielding  the  attributes  of  God,  especially 
those  of  justice  and  holiness,  with  mighty  power,  and  with 
a  kind  of  celestial,  inexorable  logic;  but  he  did  not  bring 
out  so  clearly  the  love  of  God,  and  the  grace  of  the  gospel. 
His  own  purity  and  holiness  of  character  added  weight  to 
what  he  said,  and  in  the  immediate  results  of  his  preaching 
few  apparently  have  equalled  him.  His  sermons  were  won- 
derfully adapted  to  awaken  the  New  England  church,  then 
fallen,  through  the  influence  of  the  "Half-way  Covenant" 
and  other  causes,  into  an  apathetic  and  dead  state.  They 
startled  his  auditors  like  the  notes  of  the  judgment-trump. 
The  sermonizing  of  Edwards  and  his  immediate  suc- 
cessors was  characterized,  as  we  have  said,  by  a  faithful 
exposition  of  the  Scriptures,  and  by  a  careful  drawing  out 
of  the  doctrine,  which  they  fortified  with  all  manner  of 
illustrative  reasoning,  moral  and  metaphysical ;  and  after 
that  came  the  application,  which  included  often  more  than 
half  the  sermon,  and  was  very  solemn  and  pointed.  This 
saved  the  preaching  from  being  altogether  too  abstract  and 
metaphysical.  It  had,  doubtless,  great  faults,  which  have 
since  been  more  or  less  corrected ;  and  which  will  doubt- 
less be  still  more  successfully  guarded  against  as  a  better 
taste  and  a  profouuder  knowledge  of  the  life  of  the  gospel 
prevail ;  but  the  American  style  of  preaching,  according 
to  the  principle  we  started  with,  is  also  the  direct  product 
of  the  intellectual  character  and  the  religious  history  of  the 
American  people.  It  unites  the  argument-loving  or  logical 
element  with  the  more  practical  element  of  the  American 
mind.  Doctrinal  characterizes  it ;  but  it  is  both  doctrinal 
and  experimental ;  it  aims  to  reach  the  conscience  and  will 
through  the  understanding,  and  to  bring  men  to  an  imme- 
6* 


54  "  FEE  ACHING. 

diate  decision  in  matters  of  the  soul.  It  deals  with  these 
doctrines  as  if  theywere  the  greatest  of  truths,  and  the  only 
truths  worthy  of  an  immortal  soul's  attention.  It  is  therefore 
characterized  by  the  most  intense  and  often  terrible  earnest- 
ness. And  why  has  not  the  Holy  Spirit  guided  also  in  the 
preaching  of  American  ministers  of  the  Word,  adapting  it 
to  the  character,  circumstances,  and  wants  of  the  American 
people,  just  as  truly  as  in  the  preaching  of  those  apostolic 
ambassadors  of  old,  who  delivered  the  message  of  God  to 
the  Jews,  Greeks,  and  Romans? 

The  American  sermon,  as  we  have  already  described  it, 
is  generally  built  upon  a  logical  plan,  cast  into  the  form 
of  an  argument,  with  direct  and  practical  lessons  drawn 
from  the  demonstrated  truth ;  it  is  synthetic  in  form, 
and  although  generally  biblical  in  tone  and  aim,  yet  it 
is  not  simply  biblical  as  confining  itself  to  the  interpre- 
tation of  Scripture  and  the  setting  forth  of  the  Word  of 
God ;  it  is  not  satisfied  with  this,  but  it  aims  at  a  philo- 
sophical systemization  of  divine  truth.  Indeed,  there  has 
been  sometimes  a  want  of  the  more  genuinely  evangelic 
element,  a  want,  one  might  say,  of  Christ  in  his  fulness, 
in  his  perfect  sympathy,  in  his  love  to  man,  and  in  the 
multifarious  and  infinite  relationships  and  applications  of 
his  incarnation,  and  of  the  new  life  of  God  that  has  come 
into  the  human  soul  through  Christ's  entering  into  human- 
ity. It  addresses  the  head  more  than  the  heart.  It  is 
not  too  intellectual,  but  too  exclusively  so;  and  it  has  thus 
a  rigidity  of  form  which  has  not  suflTered  it  to  come  freely 
enough  down  to  the  wants,  feelings,  and  comprehension  of 
all  men,  so  that  it  might  be  indeed  and  in  every  sense 
"the  glad  tidings." 

There  is  recently  more  of  this  free  and  vital  element  com- 
ing into  our  preaching,  and  the  great  fear  is,  that  it  will 
come  too  fast,  and  destroy  the  noble  and  substantial  ground- 
work of  American  preaching.  One  great  puljjit  orator,  in 
especial,  who  belongs  to  a  family  of  theological  princes,  is 


§  3.      HISTORY   OF   PREACHING.  55 

the  type  aiid  almost  founder  of  a  style  of  sermon  which 
applies  the  truth  to  the  life  in  an  exceedingly  interesting 
and  vitalizing  manner.  It  introduces  the  new  power  of  the 
Christian  element  into  every  part  and  eveiy  faculty  of  our 
nature,  and  freely  expresses  the  broader  sympathies  of  the 
gospel  for  all  men.  Its  faults  of  secularity,  and  of  a  certain 
carrying  of  the  human  element  to  an  extent  that  oftentimes 
seems  to  overlie  and  obstruct  the  divine  —  these  exaggera- 
tions, we  think,  will  become  hereafter  toned  down,  and  will 
leave  the  soil  enriched,  like  an  overflow  of  the  Nile.  There 
can  be  no  pulpit  eloquence,  says  Vinet,  without  the  moral 
element ;  but  the  moral,  the  ethical,  is  formed  upon  the 
dogmatic,  and  although  exclusive  dogma  without  the  moral 
element  extinguishes  both  eloquence  and  spirituality,  j^et 
the  moral  without  the  dogmatic  also  loses  its  deepest  spring 
and  power ;  a  wholesome  mingling  and  interfusing  of  the 
two  will  make  the  future  true  eloquence  and  power  of  the 
American  pulpit. 

The  names  of  our  great  preachers — of  Samuel  Davies, 
John  M.  Mason,  Griffin,  Payson,  the  Alexanders,  Sjwing, 
Lyman  Beecher,  Olin,  Bedell,  Bethune,  without  mentioning 
eminent  names  of  other  denominations,  and  of  living  men  — 
are  familiar  to  all  intelligent  American  readers;  and,  taken 
together,  there  probably  never  has  been  such  a  body  of 
preachers,  comprising  so  much  of  intellectual  power,  of 
sanctified  earnestness,  and.  of  living  faith,  since  the  days 
of  the  apostles. 

What  are  the  main  practical  lessons  to  be  drawn  from  this 
brief  survey  of  the  history  of  preaching?  They  arc,  (1)  that 
the  preacher,  especially  the  young  preacher,  should  st7'ive  to 
comprehend  and  combine  the  excellences  of  the  different  kinds 
of  preaching  of  all  times  and  ages,  and  to  enrich  and  elevate 
his  own  preaching  by  imitating  what  is  good  in  them  ;  (2) 
that  he  should  study  to  catch  the  spirit  of  his  own  age, 
feeling  that  the    spirit   sweeps    on   like   wind,   and    never 


56  PREACHING. 

recedes ;  that  it  always  hastens  to  a  higher  and  fuller  ex- 
pression of  the  love  of  God ;  and  he  should  adapt  his 
preaching  to  the  evident  leadings  and  manifestations  of  the 
spirit  in  his  day,  and  to  the  living  men  about  him,  without 
giving  up  any  of  the  great  essential  qualities  and  character- 
istics of  the  true  preacher  of  the  gospel,  which  belong  to 
all  time  and  to  eternal  truth. 

§  4.    Object  and  Design  of  Preaching. 

Considering,  then,  preaching,  now  and  henceforth,  in  its 
more  commonly  understood  sense,  as  forming  part  of  the 
regular  public  service  of  the  sanctuary,  it  should  seek,  as  its 
great  and  chief  aim,  the  praise  and  glory  of  God ;  for  it  is 
as  truly  tvorship,  though  of  a  less  direct  kind,  as  any  other 
part  of  the  service.  While  the  preaching  should  harmonize 
with  the  other  parts  of  public  worship  in  praising  God  and 
in  setting  forth  his  name,  his  love,  and  his  glorious  works, 
especially  in  the  redemption  of  man  through  Christ,  it  should 
seek  also  for  the  praise  and  glory  of  God  in  the  actual 
conversion  of  men.  It  should  have  also  this  profoundly 
practical  aim  ;  and  in  order  to  accomplish  this,  it  must  aim 
at  two  things;  viz.,  to  make  the  truth  and  love  of  God 
known  to  men ;  and,  to  persuade  them  to  obey  it.  We 
would  say,  therefore,  more  specifically,  that  the  object  of 
preaching  is,  — 

(1.)    To  teach  men  divine  truth. 

Its  first  idea  is  i7istruction  —  instruction  in  the  things  of 
God.  It  is  intended  primarily  for  the  purpose  of  publish- 
ing the  gospel,  of  making  it  knoicm  to  men.  The  preacher 
tells  men  plainly  what  is  the  new  message  of  God  in  his  gos- 
pel, and  what  are  the  terms  of  the  gospel,  so  that  they  need 
not  misapprehend  him.  Archbishop  Usher  says,  "Breth- 
ren, it  will  require  all  our  learning  to  make  the  gospel  plain 
and  intelligible  to  the  whole  of  our  hearers,  so  that  the}^ 
may  thoroughly  understand  it."     Besides  this  instruction 


§  4.      OBJECT  AND   DESIGN   OF   PREACHING.  57 

in  what  the  vital  truth  of  Christianity  is  for  the  apprehen- 
sion of  faith,  the  preacher  is  to  furnish  his  hearers  with  all 
other  needed  instruction  in  religious  things ;  in  the  reasons 
and  proofs  of  divine  truth,  by  which  they  themselves  will 
be  enabled  to  "  hold  forth  the  word  of  life  "  to  other  men  ; 
and  to  be  established  and  built  up  in  the  most  holy  faith : 
he  should  seek  to  give  them  a  broad  and  thorough  compre- 
hension of  the  doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion,  so  that 
they  shall  not  be  overcome  through  ignorance  and  unaware. 
The  didactic  element,  if  not  the  chief  element  in  preaching, 
thus  comes  first  in  the  order  of  time ;  for  men  must  know 
the  truth  before  they  can  obey  it.  The  truth  which  is  pre- 
sented and  made  known  should  be  essentially  scriptural  and 
spiritual ;  it  should  be  the  pure  essence  of  the  word  of  God, 
"^/(le  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.'"  It  may  often  tax  all  the  powers 
to  present  this  clearly,  and  the  preaching  may  be  the  fruit  of 
severe  thought ;  but  while  it  should  have  thought,  and  fresh 
thought ;  thought,  after  all,  or  the  purely  discursive  process 
of  the  mind,  is  not  the  principal  object  even  of  instruc- 
tion in  preaching.  Divine  truth  in  preaching  should  not  be 
chiefly  regarded  for  the  interesting  subjects  of  thought  which 
it  opens,  but  as  the  will  and  word  of  God,  which  preaching 
is  to  so  set  forth,  exemplify,  and  explain,  that  it  may  be 
*^ profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof  for  correction,  for 
instruction  in  righteousness,  that  the  man  of  God  may  be 
perfect,  thoroughly  furnished  unto  all  good  ivorks.^'  The 
preacher  himself  is  not  so  much  the  instructor,  as  God 
through  him.  He  is  to  let  the  truth  instruct.  The  intel- 
lectual or  didactic  idea  of  the  sermon,  therefore,  even  in 
relation  to  divine  truth,  though  a  very  important,  is  a  sec- 
ondary one ;  and  therefore, — 

(2.)  Another  object  of  preaching  is,  to  commend  divine 
truth  to  the  heart,  so  that  it  shall  be  received  to  the  salvation 
and  edification  of  the  soul.  It  does  not  end  in  setting  forth 
truth,  but  it  is  to  impel  men,  by  God's  help,  to  choose  and 
obey  it ;  it  is   the  practical   application  of  divine  truth  to 


58  PREACHING. 

meet  the  great  wants  of  the  soul.  It  cannot,  therefore, 
be  classed  with  any  other  kind  of  oration,  or  address, 
like  the  scientific  lecture,  or  the  parliamentary  speech,  for 
these  chiefly  address  the  understanding ;  but  it  is  a  sacred 
oration  for  God,  to  persuade  men  to  be  reconciled  to  him, 
not  next  year,  nor  to-morrow,  but  to-day.  Newman  Hall 
says,  "Preaching  is  the  art  of  producing  religious  convic- 
tions and  emotions  in  an  audience.  Its  effect  must  be  im- 
mediate, or  it  fails  as  preaching.  It  must  be  understood  at 
once.  Every  thought  must  be  made  clear  before  another  is 
presented.  Thus  repetitions  are  often  necessary,  the  ex- 
pression of  the  same  idea  in  various  forms,  and  occasionally 
the  repetition  of  the  very  same  words.  Whatever  interferes 
with  earnestness  of  manner  should  be  disregarded.  The 
whole  mind  should  be  bent  on  the  special  work  to  be  done, 
and  that  work  is  immediate  impression.  Just  so  far  as  the 
preacher's  mind  is  diverted  from  this  object  by  his  anxiety 
in  respect  to  the  grammatical  accuracy  of  his  words,  and 
the  perfect  taste  of  every  expression,  just  so  far  will  the 
sermon  fail  in  impressiveness."  If  we  join  with  this  true 
but  altogether  partial  conception,  the  plan  of  continuous 
instruction,  of  the  more  thoughtful  and  comprehensive  de- 
velopment of  divine  truth,  in  order  that  the  people  may  be 
well  founded  in  the  truth,  and  built  up  in  the  life  of  faith, 
we  have  some  just  conception  of  the  true  object  and  design 
of  preaching. 

Preaching,  according  to  the  German  writer  Schott,  is  de- 
signed, above  all,  to  edify  ;  that  is,  to  build  up  a  living  faith 
in  men's  sensual,  sinful  hearts  ;  but  mere  knowledge  cannot 
do  this ;  faith,  love,  obedience  in  the  hearer  himself,  must 
fit  him  to  receive  the  truth,  and  to  be  built  up  in  it.  Edifi- 
cation is  the  improvement  of  the  whole  man,  and  his  devel- 
opment in  the  life  of  God  ;  and  thus  it  is  that  the  moial, 
and,  above  all,  the  spiritual,  nature  is  the  special  field  of 
preaching ;  the  spiritual  idea  and  purpose  should  predomi- 
nate ;    the   heart   of  true   preaching  is  Christ  —  Christ  as 


§  5.       DIFFICULTIES    OF   PREACHING.  59 

the  life  of  our  spiritual  nature.  Its  great  aim  is  to  win  souls 
to  Christ,  and  make  them  Christ-like.  It  has  been  said  that 
Christ  need  not  be  in  every  sermon  ;  but  as  Christ  is  the  life 
of  all  divine  truth,  and  thus  must  be  the  end  of  all  preaching, 
^  how  can  he  be  really  absent  from  any  true  sermon  ?  To  ex- 
hibit the  truth  of  Christ  requires  the  spirit  of  Christ  in  the 
jDreacher,  his  own  spirit  of  love  to  men ;  otherwise  the  con- 
verting energy  of  the  sermon  is  lacking.  All  preaching 
should  be  "a  word  of  the  Lord"  and  should  have  this  char- 
acteristic of  apostolic  preaching  ;  that  it  leads  to  Him  who  is 
the  life. 

The  design  of  Christian  preaching,  then,  in  the  largest 
and  fullest  view  of  it,  is,  b}^  God's  blessing,  so  to  set  forth 
divine  truth,  with  such  clearness,  simjplicity,  love,  and  de- 
pendence upon  the  spirit  of  Christ,  as  to  build  vp  men  in 
the  whole  faith  and  life  of  Christ  —  to  convert ^  educate,  and 
sanctify  their  soids. 

§  5.    Difficulties  of  Preaching. 

Although  the  common  impression  is,  that  any  one  is  able 
"to  preach,"  or  even  to  compose  a  sermon,  it  is  neverthe- 
less a  difficult  thing  to  preach.  This  prevalent  idea  of  the 
ease  of  preaching  has  been  greatly  increased  by  the  com- 
mon and  commendable  habit  of  universal  religious  address, 
of  exhorting  in  prayer  meetings  and  Sunday  schools,  and 
on  the  platform — good  things,  but  not  always  good  preach- 
ing. A  popular  style  of  sermonizing,  itself,  which  is  easy 
rather  than  thoughtful,  sensational  rather  than  searching, 
pointed  rather  than  penetrating,  has  served  to  increase  and 
strengthen  this  false  impression. 

To  compose  a  good  sermon  requires  many  things  which  a 
merel}^  literary  composition  does  not.  One  should  possess  a 
fund  of  knowledge,  both  of  men  and  of  men's  thoughts,  and, 
above  all,  of  the  Scriptures,  to  be  a  good  preacher.  He 
should  be  imbued  with  the  spirit,  and  filled  with  the  knowl- 


60  PREACHING. 

edge  of  the  Word  of  God  ;  and  then  he  should  know  how  to 
choose  his  subject,  so  as  to  adapt  it  to  men's  hearts  and  their 
real  wants :  this  requires  in  him  insight  and  judgment,  and 
some  considerable  maturity  of  mind  and  character.  The 
truth,  also,  must  be  reasonably  and  appropriately''  set  forth ; 
and  still  more,  spiritual  truths,  the  most  difficult  of  all  to 
comprehend  and  to  teach,  should  be  so  comprehended  by 
him  as  to  be  made  plain  to  others  ;  and  that  religious  expe- 
rience, that  inward  condition  of  mind  and  heart,  that  love  of 
Christ  and  of  souls  which  is  fitted  for  the  production  of  gen- 
uine efiective  preaching,  is  not  often  possessed  by  the  most 
eloquent  and  learned  men  ;  so  that  it  is  not  every  one  who 
can  write  a  good  literary  composition,  or  deliver  an  effective 
address  on  other  subjects,  who  can  also  preach;  for  true 
preaching  is  the  result  of  the  combination  of  many  precious 
qualities  of  intellect,  character,  and  heart,  though  these  diffi- 
culties need  not  deter  from  attempting  to  become  a  preacher 
any  earnest  man  who  loves  the  Saviour,  and  who  is  resolved 
under  God  to  do  as  well  as  he  can ;  and  he  need  not  fear 
but  he  will,  by  God's  help,  succeed.  Preaching  cannot  be 
rushed  upon  with  heedless  haste,  as  if  one  who  had  some 
little  knack  at  writing,  or  speaking,  could  at  once  preach  a 
pungent,  edifying  sermon. 

He  who  begins  this  work,  therefore,  should  expect  hard 
work  ;  it  will  draw  forth  all  his  energies.  Lord  Bacon  says 
that  there  was  a  proverb  among  those  who  presided  at  the 
Grecian  mysteries  that  "the  wand-bearers  are  many,  but 
few  are  inspired."  So,  even,  although  it  is  an  ungracious 
thing  to  say  it,  there  are  ministers  who  are  not,  and  who 
do  not  seek  to  be,  inspired.  They  will  not  labor  to  preach 
Avell  ;  they  will  not  learn  even  the  outward  collateral 
means  and  accomplishments  of  their  profession  ;  they  will 
not  learn  how  to  write ;  they  will  not  trouble  themselves 
about  the  simplest  rhetorical  culture ;  they  w^ill  not  mend 
awkward  habits  of  delivery ;  they  will  not  correct  a  false 
tone  or  a  harsh  pronunciation ;  they  will  not  take  pains  to 


§   6.      FAULTS   OF  PEE  ACHING.  61 

acquire  the  art  of  public  speaking,  so  that  they  can  address 
an  assembly  upon  any  subject  with  effect ;  but,  above  all, 
they  will  not  grapple  with  the  real  difficulties  of  the  setting 
forth  of  divine  truth  in  preaching,  which  requires  thought, 
clear  arrangement  of  ideas,  spiritual  meditation,  and  earnest 
prayer.  They  are  doing,  perhaps,  all  other  things  except 
giving  their  undivided  energies  to  preaching.  They  say 
there  is  no  need  to  take  so  much  trouble  about  these  thinsfs, 
for  they  will  be  helped  at  the  time  of  speaking ;  but  they 
who  say  that  are  those  who,  above  all  others,  need  this  thor- 
ough training ;  for  in  God's  work,  as  well  as  in  man's,  those 
who  do  not  work  are  not  helped ;  and  do  such  preachers  de- 
serve to  be  successful? 

Let  us,  then,  come  to  the   conclusion  that  it  is  a  great 
^  thing  to  preach  the  gospel ;  and  yet  we  do  not  mean,  by 
that,  preaching  great  sermons. 

§  6.    Faults  of  PreacJiing . 

1.  Preaching  without  a  strong,  impelling  purpose.  To 
preach  merely  to  serve  a  professional  necessity  is  surely  an 
unworthy  object ;  for  there  should  be  in  every  sermon  a 
definite  purpose  to  convert  souls,  and  to  build  them  up  in 
the  faith  and  life  of  the  gospel.  In  his  preaching,  the  true 
preacher  grasps  men's  spirits,  and  draws  them  unto  Christ, 
that  they  may  be  warmed  into  new  life ;  there  should  be 
this  spiritual  grasp  in  every  sermon,  this  laying  hold  of  the 
souls  of  men  to  bring  them  to  Christ.  "  The  Judge  stand- 
eth  at  the  door." 

2.  Preaching  too  long,  and  too  learnedly  expressed  ser- 
mons. A  sermon  should  be  intensive,  rather  than  extensive 
or  pretensive  ;  there  should  be  more  pith  and  point  than  elab- 
orate argumentation  in  a  sermon.  It  is  a  religious  address  to 
men,  and  not  a  religious  treatise.  A  common  audience  does 
not  come  together  to  follow  out  the  painfully  elaborate  pro- 
cesses of  a  subtile  and  critical  mind  ;  and  so  a  too  discursive 

6 


62  PREACHING. 

style,  which  sweeps  over  a  vast  deal  of  ground,  which  deals 
with  truth  too  philosophically  or  abstractly,  without  positive- 
ness  and  a  definite  aim,  wastes  the  precious  time  allotted,  in 
the  hurry  and  rush  of  this  world's  busy  life,  to  the  preacher 
of  divine  truth.  There  may  be  learning,  and  the  results  of 
critical  scholarship,  in  the  discourse  ;  but  the  sermon  should 
not  have  a  tone  of  learning,  for  learning  deals  with  the  past, 
and  "knowledge  should  be  turned  into  life."^  The  divinely 
practical  element  in  a  sermon  should  sweep  everything  along 
with  it.  One  should  not  stop  to  exhibit  his  learning ;  and 
of  what  great  importance  is  it,  after  all,  to  one  who  has  a 
higher  end  in  view  ;  who  has  to  gain  his  hearer  and  persuade 
him  to  serve  the  Lord?  We  would  make  a  difference  be- 
tween learning  and  scholarship,  as  they  are  manifested  in 
sermon-writing.  We  need  the  last,  but  we  should  not  ex- 
hibit the  first;  or,  to  quote  from  another  writer  (Euskin), 
upon  quite  a  different  theme,  "  The  artist  need  not  be  a 
learned  man  ;  in  all  probability  it  will  be  a  disadvantage  to 
him  to  become  so;  but  he  ought,  if  possible,  to  be  an  edu- 
cated man ;  that  is,  one  who  has  understanding  of  his  own 
uses  and  duties  in  the  world,  and  therefore  of  the  general 
nature  of  the  things  done  and  existing  in  the  world,  and 
who  has  so  trained  himself,  or  been  trained,  as  to  turn  to 
the  best  account  whatever  faculties  or  knowledge  he  has. 
The  mind  of  an  educated  man  is  greater  than  the  knowl- 
edge it  possesses  ;  it  is  like  the  vault  of  heaven,  encompass- 
ing the  earth  Avhich  lives  and  flourishes  beneath  it ;  but  the 
mind  of  an  uneducated  and  learned  man  is  like  an  India- 
rubber  baud,  with  an  everlasting  spirit  of  contraction  in  it, 
listening  together  papers  which  it  cannot  open  and  keeps 
from  being  opened." 

3.  Preaching  sennons  addressed  to  the  fancy  and  the 
nervous  sensibilities.  This  is  what  Shakspeare  would  call 
"taffeta-writing."    It  is  striving  to  rival  brilliant  and  popular 

'  Dr.  Brown's  Spare  Hours. 


§    6.       FAULTS    or    PEEACniNG.  63 

lecturers,  who,  by  continually  working  upon  their  lectures, 
have  made  them  like  polished  gems,  and  have  taken  every- 
thing out  of  them  which  is  not  brilliant  and  immediately 
effective.  It  is  also  what  is  commonly  called  ^^sensational 
^reacJdng ;  "  since  it  is  determining  to  produce  a  sensation 
on  the  nerves  hy  w^ords,  rather  than  on  the  conscience  and 
heart  by  thought  and  feeling.  It  is  Avriting  from  the  motive 
of  exciting  men  for  the  moment,  and  of  catching  their  atten- 
tion by  novelties,  rather  than  of  doing  them  good  for  eter- 
nity. And  it  is  also  appealing  to  a  lower  class  of  motives, 
leavinor  men's  higher  nature  untouched.  It  is  true  that  the 
mass  of  men  will  be  attracted  by  this  style,  and  perhaps 
encourage  it ;  and  yet,  sooner  or  later,  even  they  will  tire  of 
it;  for  it  is  turning  the  sanctuary  into  a  lecture-hall  or  thea- 
tre ;  and  the  results  of  this  kind  of  preaching  are  indeed  as 
superficial  as  those  of  the  popular  lecturer  and  player,  for  if 
there  are  conversions,  they  are  of  a  doubtful  sort,  it  being 
poor  seed  sown  in  bad  soil.  In  the  words  of  another  writer, 
"  This  whole  business  of  preaching  and  hearing  for  enter- 
tainment may  be  told  in  these  two  words,  'deceiving  and 
being  deceived.'"  We  do  not  say  that  a  preacher  should 
not  attract  his  audience,  nor,  if  he  has  anything  original  in 
thought,  or  powerful  in  imagination,  or  moving  in  truth, 
that  he  should  repress  it ;  on  the  contrary,  let  him  be  him- 
self; let  him  use  every  power  that  he  possesses:  let  his 
thought  be  fresh,  and  let  him  make  a  sensation  if  he  can ; 
but  let  him  not  preach  for  the  special  purpose  of  making  a 
sensation,  of  captivating,  entertaining,  exciting,  drawing. 
How  wasteful  the  efforts  of  such  a  preacher !  How  terrible 
the  responsibility  he  incurs  !  If  the  objection  be  urged  that 
the  sermon  of  an  opposite  character  fails  to  interest  an  audi- 
ence, it  springs  probably  from  other  reasons :  the  preacher 
has,  perhaps,  failed  to  inspire  a  true  and  manly  taste  in  his 
congregation ;  he  does  not  put  genuine  thought,  feeling,  or 
spiritual  earnestness  into  his  preaching ;  there  is  nothing  to 
attract  in  it ;  there  is  no  unction ;  he  copies  his  ideas,  and 


64  PREACHING. 

feigns  his  emotions,  and  how  can  he  create  a  legitimate  inter- 
est in  this  "way  ?  The  preacher  should  therefore  resist  the 
temi^tution  (which  is  one  of  the  first  to  assail  him)  to  make 
a  fine,  attractive  sermon,  but  let  him  rather  strive  to  make 
a  plain  one ;  and  if  there  is  aught  of  literary  or  awakening 
l^ower  in  him,  it  will  vshine  out  in  due  time.  In  saying  this 
we  would  not  be  imderstood  as  saying  anything  against  true 
eloquence  in  the  pulpit ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  draw  the  line 
between  the  true  and  false.  We  find  no  fault  with  him  who 
strives,  for  the  sake  of  the  truth,  to  say  a  thing  strongly, 
attractively,  eloquently ;  but  if  he  says  anything  in  order  to 
be  eloquent,  to  make  himself  attractive,  to  build  up  his  own 
reputation,  to  produce  an  excitement  for  his  or  its  own  sake, 
to  gain  the  name  of  an  eloquent  preacher,  to  make  preach- 
ing a  vehicle  for  personal  or  popular  influence,  —  here  we 
detect  the  false  style  ;  it  is  thoroughly  and  in  the  lowest 
sense  human,  and  not  divine. 

4.  Preaching  too  easy  sermons.  Antiquity  and  the  au- 
thority of  the  Scriptures  have  made  preaching  on  the  Lord's 
day  a  matter  of  great  and  eternal  moment,  a  reasoning  of 
God  with  man,  ^'the  savor  of  life  unto  life^  or  the  savor  of 
death  unto  death." 

True  preaching  must,  therefore,  still  continue  to  be  bibli- 
cal, thoughtful,  authoritative ;  it  doubtless  may  and  should 
have  much  more  of  popular  application,  naturalness,  and 
life ;  it  may  come  down  more  truly  to  the  sympathies  and 
comprehensions  of  all  men ;  but  the  preparation  for  the  pul- 
pit should  continue  to  be  a  severe  exercise,  and  the  sermon 
should  still  deal  seriously  with  great  thoughts  and  themes ; 
it  should  not  play  with  them. 

But,  is  it  objected,  how  can  a  minister,  with  all  his  other 
duties,  prepare  two  such  thoughtful  and  faithful  sermons  in 
a  week?  This  is  a  chronic  question,  and  we  can  answer  it 
only  by  asking  another  :  '"How  have  the  best  preachers  done 
this?"  In  some  way  or  another,  they  have  contrived  to 
preach  solidly,  attractively,  effectively,  twice  on  Sunday, 


§   7.      METHOD   OF   COMPOSING  A   SERMON.  65 

and  every  time  they  preach.  Whitefield  preached,  on  an 
average,  ten  times  a  week  for  the  space  of  thirty-four  years, 
and  John  Wesley  nearly  the  same  number  for  a  much  longer 
time  ;  and  Wesley's  sermons,  if  not  Whitefield's,  were  care- 
fully composed.  A  young  minister  doubtless  has  a  difficult 
task  at  first;  but  by  severe  labor,  by  frequent  exchanges, 
by  repeating  his  sermons,  and  by  not  preaching  more  than 
twice  on  Sunday,  he  can  accomplish  this  as  others  have 
done.  And,  as  a  general  rule,  short  sermons,  short  ser-  ^ 
mons.  One  subject,  one  thought,  one  duty,  fully  handled, 
fully  illustrated,  fully  brought  home  to  the  conscience  and 
heart,  is  enough  for  one  sermon ;  and,  would  that  young 
ministers,  as  well  as  older  ones,  could  have  the  sagacity, 
humility,  and  independence,  to  see  and  follow  this  rule  ! 

§  7.     Method  of  composing  a  Sermon. 

We  will,  in  the  first  place,  quote  two  or  three  passages 
from  Dr.  Alexander's  Thoughts  on  Preaching :  "  I  wish  I 
could  make  sermons  as  if  I  had  never  heard  or  read  hoAv 
they  are  made  by  other  people.  The  formalism  of  regular 
divisions  and  applications  is  deadly."  "  In  writing  or  speak- 
ing, throw  off  all  restraint.  Writing  from  a  precomposed 
skeleton  is  eminently  restraining.  It  forces  one  to  parcel 
out  his  matter  in  a  forced,  Procrustean  way.  The  current 
is  often  thus  stopped  at  the  very  moment  when  it  begins  to 

crush.     The  ideal  of  a  discourse  is  that  of  a  flow  from  first 

o 

to  last."  "The  true  way  is  to  have  an  object,  and  to  be  full  . 
of  it."  "  I  never  could  understand  what  is  meant  by  making 
a  sermon  on  a  prescribed  text.  The  right  text  is  one  which 
comes  of  itself  during  reading  and  meditation ;  which  ac- 
companies you  in  walks,  goes  to  bed  with  you,  and  rises 
with  you.  On  such  a  text  thoughts  swarm  and  cluster  like 
bees  upon  a  branch.  The  sermon  ferments  for  hours  and 
days,  and  at  length,  after  patient  waiting  and  almost  spon- 
taneous working,  the  subject  clarifies  itself,  and  the  true 
6* 


66  PREACHING. 

method  of  treatment  presents  itself  in  a  shape  which  can- 
not be  rejected."  There  is  great  truth  in  these  remarks, 
but  we  might  be  allowed  to  differ  from  them  in  some  par- 
ticulars, especially  in  regard  to  the  use  of  a  ;plan.  We 
agree  fully  with  the  idea  that  the  plan  should  not  be  made 
to  restrain  or  to  confine  the  thought;  it  should  regulate, 
not  repress  ;  it  should  not  be  the  frigid  application  of  the 
rule  and  square  to  every  sermon ;  but  it  is  often  useful  as  a 
method  of  arranging  thought,  and  of  employing  our  materi- 
als to  the  best  advantage. 

Let  us,  then,  suppose,  that  in  studying  or  reading  the 
Scriptures,  a  text,  or  a  theme  contained  in  a  text,  has  sug- 
gested itself  to  the  mind,  although  we  know  that  there  is 
no  rule  in  the  manner  and  mode  of  these  suirgestions,  for 
the  subject  of  a  sermon  may  come  to  one  in  travelling,  or 
upon  a  walk,  or  in  pastoral  visitation,  or  upon  his  bed, 
or  at  the  bedside  of  the  sick,  almost  as  readily  as  in  the 
study ;  yet  texts  and  subjects  for  preaching  that  are  sug- 
gested to  one  in  Ms  regular  daily  study  and  meditation  of 
the  Word  of  God,  are  certainly  the  truest,  richest,  and  most 
profitable  subjects  for  preaching.  They  seem  thus  to  come 
to  us  by  the  direct  inspiration  of  the  Word  and  Spirit 
of  God. 

A  portion  of  truth,  a  real  subject  of  thought,  has  thus 
been  presented  to  the  mind,  which  must  have  something  to 
work  upon ;  for  all  thought  depends  upon  previous  knowl- 
edge, and  reasoning  is  simply  a  deduction  from  previous 
facts  of  which  the  knowing  faculties  have  taken  co£rnizance. 
Now,  although  the  subject  is  thus  before  the  mind,  the  sim- 
ple theme  is  not  itself  sufficient  to  keep  the  mind  working ; 
for  to  begin  at  once  to  write  upon  this  subject,  is  prepos- 
terous ;  to  catch  up  an  idea,  or  half  idea,  and  compose  an 
edifying  discourse  upon  it,  without  more  study  and  reflec- 
tion, is  to  heap  up  words  without  wisdom. 

After  obtaining  the  theme,  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to  learn 
something  about  it;  to  read,  to  investigate,  to  study  upon 


§   7.      METHOD   OF   COMPOSING   A   SERMON.  67 

it ;  to  draw  out  from  the  best  sources,  and  all  sources,  the 
real  knowledge  of  the  subject;  to  recall,  revolve,  and  de- 
velop it  by  patient  thought.  The  thorough  stuchj  of  the 
Word  of  God  is  always  thus  a  primary  work,  in  order  to 
get  at  the  right  inter j)retation  of  the  passage,  and  to  gain 
a  clear  idea  of  its  contents ;  and  then  the  particular  truth 
thus  evolved,  the  idea  which  is  contained  within  the  text, 
may  be  taken  out  of  its  connection  with  the  text,  and  con- 
ceived of  in  its  wider  relations ;  and  not  only  the  reasons 
for,  but  the  objections  that  may  be  brought  against  it,  may 
be  contemplated.  The  subject  should  be  looked  at  in  its 
whole  length  and  depth ;  all  the  possible  side-light  should 
be  let  in ;  and  thus  the  mind  works  in  and  through  it  till  the 
whole  is  leavened,  till  the  simple  thought  is  fully  developed. 

All  this,  perhaps,  may  be  done  (if  one  is  preparing  a 
written  sermon)  without  putting  pen  to  paper;  for  the 
great  thing  is  to  get  the  mind  thoroughly  aroused,  every 
faculty  of  it,  and  all  directed  to  one  particular  object.  This 
is  the  momentum  which  is  required  to  carry  one  through. 
And  this  should  not  be  a  merely  intellectual  excitement ; 
it  should  be  the  stirring  of  the  depths  of  the  nature  and  of 
the  soul.  "A  purely  intellectual  force  may  arrest  and  inter- 
est an  audience,  but  taken  by  itself  it  cannot  persuade  their 
wills  or  melt  their  hearts.  The  best  sermons  of  a  preacher  \ 
are  generally  those  composed  under  the  impulse  of  a  lively 
state  of  religious  feeling."^ 

When  one  is  ready  to  compose  his  sermon,  the  books  he 
has  read,  the  commentaries  he  has  consulted,  the  notes  he 
has  made,  might  be  laid  aside  for  a  little  while,  in  order 
to  give  the  mind  time  to  recover  its  independent  tone  and 
action,  and  to  think  for  itself. 

At  this  stage,  we  would  suggest  that  one  should  rapidly 
write  down  his  ideas,  and  the  thoughts  he  has  collected 
together  or  originated  upon  the  subject,  however  diverse 

'  Shedd's  Homiletics,  p.  131. 


68  PREACHING. 

from  each  other,  and  without  any  particular  regard  to  con- 
nection or  arrangement ;  say  to  one's  self,  "  What  definite 
thoughts,  after  all  this  study  and  investigation,  have  I  really 
gathered  on  this  subject?"  If  there  is  anything  so  gained, 
no  matter  what  it  is,  let  him  put  it  down  ;  and  these  more 
or  less  disconnected  thoughts  will  form  the  nucleus  of  the 
sermon,  out  of  which  order  will  finally  spring:  this  is  the 
first  step  out  of  confusion  towards  order ;  and  in  this  process 
the  inner  connections  of  ideas  will  bemn  to  manifest  them- 
selves  more  clearly. 

By  this  time  (and  this  may  not  be  a  long  time)  one  is 
ready  to  form  something  like  a  plan,  because  now  he  has 
the  materials  to  do  it  with.  No  true  sermon  springs  out 
V  of  a  plan,  but  a  plan  springs  out  of  study  and  thought, 
and  is  only  a  help  in  the  orderly  development  of  a  sermon. 
The  difficulty  concerning  a  plan  has  generally  arisen  from 
supposing  that  inspiration  comes  from  the  plan.  Not  at 
all ;  it  is  hut  an  aid  to  guide  and  harmonize  thought,  not 
an  original  source  of  thought;  and  we  would  therefore  not 
entirely  dispense  with  a  plan ;  for  both  nature  and  reason 
teach  us  that  it  is  indispensable.  Is  not  creation  —  God's 
discourse  —  carried  out  on  a  plan?  So  every  true  work 
should  have  a  plan,  an  inner  unity,  some  one  idea  to  be 
developed,  some  one  aim  to  be  attained ;  and  that  should 
guide  and  shape  every  subordinate  detail,  to  the  furthest 
and  minutest  ramification  of  the  theme. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  mind  is  busy  in  moulding  and 
fusing  what  has  been  thus  thrown  together  in  some  degree 
of  just  quantity  and  proportion ;  and  truly  it  were  well  if 
the  ordering,  guiding,  and  illumining  Spirit  were  invoked 
to  one's  aid.  The  religious  energies  should  have  ample 
opportunity  to  warm  and  act  upon  the  subject-matter  of 
thought,  and  the  mind  should  be  kindled  with  the  love 
of  Christ,  and  filled  with  the  truth ;  for  no  sermon  should 
be  written  without  prayer,  since  no  true  sermon,  even  if 
it   is    not    divinely    originated    and    inspired,    should    fail 


§  7.      METHOD    OF   COMPOSING   A   SERMON.  69 

to  be  guided  by  the  spirit  of  divine  wisdom,  truth,  and 
grace. 

Then  taking  hold  of  it  with  interest  and  with  absorbed 
attention  (for  preaching,  above  all  things,  comes  under  the 
nihil  invitd  Minervd),  one  should  compose  as  rapidly  as 
possible,  with  a  glow  of  mind,  without  the  least  constraint 
or  care  for  rhetorical  rules,  not  stopping  for  a  moment  to 
correct  or  improve.  This  rapidity  is  important  for  the 
unity  and  life  of  a  discourse ;  for  let  the  gold  simmer  ever 
so  long,  at  last  it  should  run  out  in  a  continuous  stream. 
J.  W.  Alexander  says,  "If  I  have  ever  written  anything 
acceptably,  it  has  been  with  a  free  pen,  and  from  a  full 
heart.  Write  with  great  rapidity  whatever  occurs  to  you. 
This  you  may  methodize  afterward."^ 

T\\&  finishing  of  a  sermon  is  a  matter  requiring  more  care, 
time,  and  deliberation.  Lord  Brougham  wrote  the  perora- 
tion of  his  argument  on  the  trial  of  Queen  Caroline  twenty 
times;  and  even  a  genius  like  Goethe  said  that  "nothing 
came  to  him  in  his  sleep."  Now,  is  it  said,  Would  you  set 
this  forth  as  the  invariable  method  of  making  a  sermon,  or 
of  preparing  to  preach?  By  no  means.  That  is  but  one 
method,  and  it  has  a  more  particular  and  distinct  reference 
to  the  written  discourse.  Different  men  have  different  ways 
of  preparation  for  preaching ;  let  each  one  follow  his  own 
method.  We  throw  this  out  only  as  a  hint  toward  some 
practical  method  of  proceeding  to  make  a  sermon,  since  the 
question  is  frequently  asked  by  the  theological  student, 
"  How  shall  I  go  to  work  to  write  a  sermon  ?  "  But  when 
the  sermon  is  finished  by  the  exercise  of  one's  best  powers, 
let  it  be  finished,  and  let  not  the  mind  continually  worry 
itself  because  it  has  not  reached  its  ideal.  Apelles,  the 
ancient  Greek  painter,  said  "  he  knew  when  to  leave  off — 
an  art  that  Protogenes  did  not  know."  One's  aim  may  be 
high,  but  when  he  has  made  an  honest  effort  to  reach  it  he 

•  Thoughts  on  Preaching,  p.  7. 


^ 


70  PREACHING. 

should  be  satisfied ;  for  the  mind  may  get  absolutely  mor- 
bid upon  this  point,  and  may  maunder  and  complain  over 
its  imperfect  productions,  when  the  manlier  way  is  to  say 
nothing,  and  to  write  better  sermons. 

§  8.     Sermons  classified  according  to  their  MetJiod  of 
Delivery. 

Sermons  classified  simply  in  regard  to  their  mode  of 
delivery  are,  written,  memoriter,  and  extempore;  and  to 
beoin  with  that  method  which  is  considered  to  be  the  least 
commendable,  — 

1.  Memoriter  preaching. 

Memoriter  preaching,  called  sometimes  "reciting,"  was 
never  so  much  in  favor  in  this  country  as  in  England  and 
Scotland ;  for  it  has  the  disadvantages  of  the  written 
method,  without  securing  the  advantages  of  the  extempo- 
raneous method.  It  is  the  written  method,  though  appar- 
ently unwritten;  one  is' confined,  though  seemingly  free; 
he  is  attempting  two  processes  at  once  —  that  of  remem- 
bering and  delivering ;  and  this  real  want  of  freedom  will 
surely  make  itself  manifest,  if  in  no  other  way,  by  the  ab- 
stracted expression  of  the  eyes,  gazing  at  vacancy,  by  which 
it  will  be  soon  discovered  that  the  preacher  is  "reading  from 
his  memory."  There  is  more  honesty  and  power  in  openly 
delivering  the  sermon  from  the  manuscript ;  for  the  secret 
being  out  that  one  is  speaking  from  memory,  the  virtue  has 
departed  from  the  discourse. 

Yet  it  may  be  said  in  favor  of  memoriter  preaching,  that 
it  serves  to  correct  the  written  style.  One  readily  discov- 
ers, in  delivering  the  sermon  away  from  the  manuscript, 
whatever  is  stifl'  and  essayish  in  it,  whatever  is  not  suited 
to  be  spoken,  whatever  cannot  be  delivered  easily  and  natu- 
rally. Hagenbach  indeed  recommends  the  memoriter  style 
first  of  all,  the  written  next,  and  the  extempore  not  at  all ; 
and  it  is  interesting  to  notice  what  Dr.  Samuel  Hopkins 


§  8.      CLASSIFICATION   OF    SERMONS  —  MEMOEITER.        71 

says  of  Jonathan  Edwards's  preaching :  "  He  was  wont  to 
read  so  considerable  a  part  of  what  he  delivered,  yet  he 
was  far  from  thinking  this  the  best  way  of  preaching  in 
general,  and  looked  upon  using  his  notes  so  much  as  he 
did  a  deficiency  and  infirmity ;  and  in  the  latter  part  of  his 
life  he  was  inclined  to  think  it  would  have  been  better 
if  he  had  never  been  accustomed  to  use  his  notes  at  all. 
It  appeared  to  him  that  preaching  wholly  without  notes, 
agreeably  to  the  custom  in  most  Protestant  countries,  and 
in  what  seems  evidently  to  have  been  the  manner  of  the 
apostles  and  primitive  preachers  of  the  gospel,  was  by  far 
the  most  natural  way,  and  had  the  greatest  tendency,  on 
the  whole,  to  answer  the  end  of  preaching ;  and  supposed 
that  no  one  who  had  talents  equal  to  the  work  of  the  min- 
istry was  incapable  of  speaking  memor^7er,  if  he  took  suit- 
able pains  for  this  attainment  in  his  youth.  He  would  have 
the  young  preacher  write  all  his  sermons,  or,  at  least,  most 
of  them,  out,  at  large;  and  instead  of  reading  them  to  his 
hearers,  take  pains  to  commit  them  to  memory ;  which, 
though  it  would  require  a  great  deal  of  labor  at  first,  yet 
would  soon  become  easier  by  use,  and  help  him  to  speak 
more  correctly  and  freely,  and  be  of  great  service  to  him 
all  his  days."' 

In  memoriter  preaching,  if  one  can  overcome  the  nervous 
fear  of  breaking  down,  he  has  certainly  gained  accuracy  of 
language  and  deliberation  of  thought,  and  he  can  look  an 
audience  in  the  face  and  be  free  in  his  action.  Some  men 
of  remarkable  memories  have  succeeded  in  that  style  of 
preaching,  and  it  is  wonderful  how  a  verbal  memory  may 
be  cultivated.  It  is,  at  least,  a  great  acquisition  to  a  min- 
ister to  have  his  memory  stored  with  passages  of  Scrip- 
ture. Even  if  a  minister  adopts  a  written,  rather  than  a 
memoriter  style,  he  should  be  thoroughly  familiar  with  his 
manuscript,  so  that  it  amounts  to  a  memoriter  style.    Scotch 

'  Works  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  London  ed.,  p.  ccxxxi. 


72  PREACHING. 

preachers  call  this  method  "mandating"  —  a  process  which, 
it  is  said,  may  be  heard  going  on  with  great  energy  in  a 
Scotch  parsonage  every  Saturday  uight.  Reinhard  early 
adopted  the  memoriter  style.  His  reasons  for  it,  strongly 
urged,  may  be  found  in  his  "Letters  on  Preaching."  But, 
notwithstanding  all  that  may  be  said  in  its  favor,  "we  cannot 
heartily  recommend  this  style,  for,  in  addition  to  the  objec- 
tions already  stated,  there  are  these  :  that  by  repeating  his 
sermon  so  many  times,  in  order  to  commit  it,  one  will  be 
apt  to  get  tired  of  it ;  the  fire  and  energy  will  be  taken  out 
of  it ;  a  great  deal  of  time  is  also  consumed  ;  and,  after  all, 
it  is  quite  impossible  to  conceal  the  idea  that  it  has  been 
written,  and  thus  the  air  of  delivering  a  thoughtful  sermon 
as  if  it  were  composed  on  the  spot  will  have  a  shade  of  in- 
sincerity. But  all  these  objections  may  vanish  in  particular 
cases. 

2.  Written  Sermons. 

As  to  the  written  sermon,  though  mostly  a  modern  usage, 
—  for  Tillotson  may  be  said  to  be  the  originator  of  the  regu- 
lar custom  of  j)reachiug  written  sermons  in  the  English  pul- 
pit,—  we  nevertheless  conclude  that,  with  many  ministers, 
it  must  and  should  continue  to  form  the  staple  method  of 
preaching;  for  all  men  have  not  the  mental  facility,  the 
linguistic  gift,  and  the  cool-headedness,  to  become  good 
memoriter  or  extempore  preachers.  The  emotions  of  some 
men  rise  too  suddenly,  like  agitated  waves,  to  permit  the 
calm  process  of  making  well-expressed  and  impromptu  sen- 
tences. Even  Demosthenes  never  ventured  upon  extempo- 
raneous speaking,  but  carefully  wrote  out  all  his  orations. 

The  subjects  which  are  generally  preached  upon  in  the  pul- 
pits of  a  highly-educated  Christian  community  also  require 
that  carefulness  of  treatment,  and  that  precision  of  state- 
ment, which  almost  necessitate  the  written  discourse  ;  and 
it  may  be  added  that  he  who  does  not  write  out  his  sermons 
will  be  in  danger  of  rapidly  deteriorating  as  a  preacher,  and 
of  losing  his  power  of  accurate  thinking.     Writing  makes 


§  8.       CLASSIFICATION   OF   SERMONS  —  WRITTEN.  73 

a  clear  style.  The  man  who  does  not  write  does  not,  as  a 
general  rule,  present  his  thoughts  clearly.  Says  J.  W. 
Alexander,  "The  remedy  of  sterile  reverie  is  the  pen. 
State  down  every  attainment  in  your  thinking  by  a  verbal 
proposition.  The  thing  of  emphasis  is  the  propositional 
form.  We  never  have  the  full  use  of  language  as  an  in- 
strument of  thought,  unless  we  cause  our  thoughts  to  fall 
in  an  assertory  shape."'  The  familiar  advice  of  Cicero, 
in  the  thirty-third  section  of  the  De  Oratore,  is,  "  Caput 
autem  est  .  .  .  quam  plurimum  scribere.  Stilus  optitnus 
et  prcestantissimus  dicendi  effector  ac  magister.  .  .  .  Ipsa 
collatio  conformatioque  verhorum  perjicitur  in  scribendo,  non 
poetico,  sed  quodam  oratorio  numero  et  modo."  Profes- 
sor Shepard,  in  his  discourse  on  the  Congregational  Pulpit, 
preached  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Congre- 
gational Union,  in  1857,  makes  these  strong  remarks  :  "  We 
insist,  then,  that  we  are  not  to  cease  following  the  fathers 
in  a  fervid  use  of  the  pen,  more  or  less,  in  connection 
with  preparing  for  the  pulpit.  Some  of  them,  doubtless, 
placed  too  much  reliance  on  it.  Some  come  under  a  ser- 
vile bondage  to  it.  But  it  does  not  follow  from  this  that 
our  wisdom  consists  in  throwing  it  wholly  away.  We  have 
said  that  some  of  those  writers  for  the  pulpit  proved  them- 
selves as  among  the  most  effective  that  ever  stood  there. 
They  made  men  see  the  truth,  believe  it,  confess  it,  and  be 
Christians.  They  made  them  thinkers,  reasoners,  orators. 
The  sage  of  Franklin  was  the  teacher  of  logic  to  laAvyers. 
The  greatest  mathematician  of  the  age  was  the  product  of 
that  pulpit;  at  any  rate,  he  sprang  out  from  before  it.  In 
the  light  of  our  history  we  pronounce  the  clamor  raised  in 
some  quarters  against  all  writing  for  the  pulpit  a  miserably 
shallow  and  most  senseless  clamor.  The  pulpit  cannot 
maintain  its  moulding  efficacy,  its  ruling  position,  unless 
the  men  thereof  are  men  of  the  sturdy  pen,  as  well  as  of 

*  Thoughts  on  Preaching,  pp.  503-506. 

7 


74  PREACHING. 

the  nimble  tongue.  People,  take  them  as  they  rise,  are 
greatly  given  to  be  lazy;  hard  thinking  is  hard  work,  and 
lazy  men  won't  do  it  if  they  can  help  it.  Let  the  mere  off- 
hand be  the  mode  and  the  law,  and  we  shall  have  mere  flip- 
pant, off-hand,  extemporaneous  dribble.  It  will  answer  for 
exhortation,  but  not  for  doctrine,  for  correction,  for  instruc- 
tion in  righteousness  ;  the  thin  liquid  flow  will  do  for  babes, 
but  it  will  Jiot  support  the  stomachs  of  men.  There  are 
discourses  which  ought  to  be  made,  but  cannot  be  made  in 
this  way;  crises,  wants,  demands,  which  cannot  be  wholly 
met  in  this  way."  Funeral  discourses,  occasional  dis- 
courses, and  meditative  sermons,  cannot  possibly  be  con- 
structed in  this  off-hand  way. 

Besides  these  reasons,  which  have  chiefly  regard  to  the 
preacher  himself,  habit  may  so  form  a  congregation,  that 
they  may  be  as  readily  and  deeply  moved  by  a  written  dis- 
course as  by  a  freer  extemporaneous  one.  There  have  been 
revivals  under  written  sermons,  as  well  as  under  extem- 
pore sermons ;  among  Congregationalists  as  well  as  among 
Metho(,lists.  Dr.  Chalmers  did  not  seem  to  lose  much  b}'- 
written  sermons ;  and  now,  though  dead,  he  speaks  through 
them.  His  unsuccessful  efibrts  at  extemporaneous  preach- 
ing are  described  in  Hauua's  "Life,"  vol.  i.,  p.  342.  The 
editor  says  he  found  that  "  the  ampler  the  matter  he  had 
prepared,  the  more  difiicult  was  the  utterance.  It  Avas  not 
easy  for  him  to  light  at  once  on  words  and  phrases  which 
could  give  anything  like  adequate  conveyance  to  convictions 
so  intense  as  his  were  ;  and  he  could  not  be  satisliecl,  and 
with  no  comfort  could  he  proceed,  while  an  interval  so  wide 
remained  between  the  truth  as  it  was  felt  and  the  truth  as 
his  words  had  represented  it.  After  a  succession  of  eflbrts, 
the  attempt  at  extempore  preaching  was  relinquished ;  but 
he  carried  into  his  study  a  secure  and  effective  lodgment  of 
the  truth  in  the  minds  of  others,  which  had  so  much  to  do 
with  the  origin  of  all  that  amplification  and  iteration  with 
which  his  writings  abound.     In  preparing  for  the  pulpit,  he 


§  8.       CLASSIFICATION   OF   SEEMONS WRITTEN.  75 

scarcely  ever  sat  down  to  write  without  the  idea  of  other 
minds,  whom  it  was  his  object  to  impress,  being  either  more 
distinctly  or  more  latently  present  to  his  thoughts ;  and  he 
seldom  rose  from  writing  without  the  feeling  that  still  other 
modes  of  influential  representation  remained  untried." 

Here  was  Dr.  Chalmers's  security  as  a  preacher  of  writ- 
ten sermons,  —  his  earnestness  to  impress  truth  on  the  souls 
of  his  hearers.  In  Scotland  there  is  a  strong  aversion  to 
what  is  called  "  paper ;  "  but  Dr.  Chalmers  had  —  so  it  Avas 
said  by  a  peasant  woman  of  another  Scotch  preacher — "a 
pith  wi'  his  paper."  During  the  delivery  of  his  "Astronom- 
ical Discourses  "  on  Thursday's  during  two  of  the  best  busi- 
ness hours  of  the  day,  the  counting-rooms  and  coffee-houses 
were  deserted,  and  from  twelve  to  fifteen  hundred  business 
men  would  crowd  into  the  church,  great  numbers  going 
away  because  there  was  no  room. 

We  would  add,  that  even  in  the  most  practical  light  in 
which  this  matter  can  be  viewed,  the  preacher,  by  skilful 
management,  by  gaining  a  perfect  familiarit}^  Avith  his  manu- 
script (having  it  written  out  in  a  clear,  large,  bold  hand), 
and  by  becoming  in  some  measure  independent  of  the  man- 
uscript, and  rising  above  it,  — by  filling  his  mind  with  the 
subject-matter,  —  may  be  able,  in  the  delivery  of  the  written 
sermon,  to  do  away  almost  entirely  with  the  impression  that 
it  is  not,  in  form  at  least,  a  spontaneous  discourse.  But 
the  usual  awkward  and  confused  maimer  of  reading  written 
discourses  is  unendurable.  He  who  has  good  sight  and 
good  memory  should  deliver  his  sermon  standing  erect,  as 
if  he  had  no  shred  of  manuscript  before  him.  To  see  a 
preacher  of  the  free  gospel  with  his  head  continually  bent 
over  his  sermon,  and  tied  down  to  his  manuscript,  as  if 
there  were  no  living  audience  before  him,  is  certainly  a 
pitiable  spectacle. 

The  thing  chiefly  to  be  guarded  against  in  a  written  ser- 
mon, is  writing  and  delivering  it  as  if  it  were  a  literary  jprch- 
duction  to  he  ready  instead  of  an  address  to  be  spoken.     A 


76  PREACHING. 

sermon,  as  has  been  often  said,  is  a  discourse  addressed  to  an 
audience,  and  is  intended  to  produce  a  specific  efi'ect  upon 
some  particular  audience.  This  idea,  ever  present,  will 
break  up  the  essay-style  of  written  sermons.  Let  one  never 
think  of  reading  a  sermon,  but  of  ])reacJdng  it.  And  even 
while  composing  a  discourse,  the  audience  should  be  men- 
tally in  sight.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  has  somewhere  given 
an  interesting  account  of  the  first  sermon  he  ever  preached, 
after  he  had  been  a  preacher  some  years.  The  idea  that 
made  it  a  sermon  was  this  :  that  the  living  souls  before  him 
formed  the  end  of  his  preaching,  —  the  impressions  for  life 
or  death  produced  upon  them, — not  the  sermon  itself,  which 
was  of  little  importance.  The  sermon  should  be  a  living 
word  rather  than  a  w^ritten  composition  ;  and  he  who 
preaches  Christ  as  the  way  of  justification  and  eternal 
life  with  any  of  the  earnest  feeling  which  such  a  truth 
should  inspire,  will  not  be  a  dead  preacher,  although  he 
preaches  written  discourses.  The  mode  is  not  of  so  much 
importance  as  the  spirit  and  substance.  A  man  dying  of 
thirst  cares  little  whether  water  be  brought  to  him  in  bare 
hands  or  a  silver  cup.  A  caution  should  be  given  about 
repeating  written  sermons.  It  is  too  much  the  habit  of 
preachers  to  snatch  up  at  the  last  moment,  for  an  exchange, 
or  for  a  second  preaching,  a  manuscript  sermon,  without 
studying  it  carefully.  Every  sermon  preached,  whether 
written  or  unwritten,  whether  preached  the  first  or  the  for- 
tieth time,  should  be  a  fresh  discourse.  There  should  be 
not  only  an  intellectual,  but  a  spiritual  reproduction  of  the 
sermon ;  it  should  be  thought  out  afresh ;  it  should  be 
re-created  ;  it  should  be  prayed  over  and  breathed  upon 
by  the  same  intense  feeling  as  that  in  which  it  was  com- 
posed. It  is  seldom,  indeed,  that  an  old  sermon  does  not 
need  correction  and  improvement,  and  even  re-writing ;  for 
one  may  have  gained  new  thoughts  and  experiences  on  the 
same  subject ;  at  all  events,  every  sermon  preached  should 
bear  a  fresh  coinage,  and  if  repeated,  it  should  be  re-minted. 


§  8.       CLASSIFICATION   OF   SERMONS  —  EXTEMPORE.         77 

3.    Extempore  Sermons, 

There  is,  without  doubt,  a  wide-spread  impression,  that 
something  is  greatly  wanting  in  our  preaching,  and  that  there 
is  a  decided  demand  for  more  of  practical  efiectiveness,  sim- 
plicity, and  common  interest,  in  this  part  of  divine  service. 
No  thought  or  logic  can  make  up  for  the  lack  of  that  which 
excites  a  real  interest  in  the  audience.  There  is  an  ill-con-  ■ 
cealed  restlessness  under  the  formal  style  of  sermonizing ; 
the  thought  is  too  abstract ;  it  wearies  the  common  mind, 
and  is  out  of  the  range  of  our  usual  habits  of  thinking ;  also 
it  is  not  sufficiently  spiritual,  and  nourishing  to  the  spiritual 
nature,  and  people  neither  understand  it  nor  are  editied  by 
it.  When  preaching  "  loses  out  of  it  the  elements  of  popu- 
larity," it  is  useless  and  dead.  Luther  said,  "I  would  not 
bave  preachers  torment  their  hearers  with  long  and  tedious 
preaching.  When  I  am  in  the  pulpit,  I  regard  neither  doc- 
tors nor  magistrates,  of  whom  about  forty  are  in  the  church  ; 
but  I  have  an  eye  to  the  multitudes  of  young  people,  chil- 
dren, and  servants,  of  whom  there  are  about  two  thousand." 

This  want  has  of  late  been  sought  to  be  met  by  a  "  sen- 
sational "  style  of  preaching ;  but  this  is  not  its  remedy, 
for  charlatanism  in  the  pulpit  cannot  long  maintain  its  influ- 
ence. A  partial  remedy  of  this  want  would  doubtless  be  in 
the  introduction  of  a  more  natural  style  of  preaching,  like 
Luther's,  in  which  the  man  speaks  himself  out  more  freely  ; 
and  the  question  thus  arises :  would  not  the  more  general 
cultivation  of  the  extemporaneous  style  of  sermonizing  tend 
to  make  preaching  more  natural,  free,  and  popularly  inter- 
esting? It  is  certainly  well  for  younger  ministers  to  hear 
the  mutterings  of  the  coming  storm,  and  to  direct  their 
attention  to  this  inquiry.  Many  preachers,  who  have  pro- 
duced the  profoundest  results,  have  been  extempore  preach- 
ers;  these  have  been  preachers  not  only  like  Whitefield, 
Nettleton,  Spurgeon,  and  Newman  Hall,  —  men  of  that 
type,  —  but  Fen^lon,  Eobert  Hall,  Schleiermacher,  F.  W. 
Robertson  ;  men  of  a  thoughtful  and  philosophical  character 
7* 


78  PREACHING. 

of  mind.  F.  W.  Robertson's  most  finished  sermons  were 
preached  from  "a  few  words  pencilled  on  a  visiting  card." 
Schleiermacher,  in  the  latter  years  of  his  life,  did  not  put  pen 
to  paper  before  preaching,  but  would  stand  for  hours  lean- 
ing out  of  a  window,  meditating  his  discourse.^  There  is 
something  in  the  London  Baptist  apostle's  audiences  of 
eight  to  ten  thousand  hearers,  composed  of  all  classes  of 
society,  high  and  low,  which  should  set  us  thinking  where 
his  power  lies.  The  reformers,  Luther,  Calvin,  Knox, 
and  their  contemporaries,  as  well  as  the  early  fathers,  the 
preachers  of  the  primitive  church,  and  the  apostles  them- 
selves, doubtless,  preached  extemporaneously.  It  may  be 
hard  for  one  who  has  formed  the  habit  of  preaching  from 
notes  to  change  his  style,  although  Albert  Barnes  became 
an  extemporaneous  preacher  at  sixty,  and  is  said  never  to 
have  preached  so  powerfully  ;  but  for  persons  entering  upon 
the  ministry,  and  who  are  determined  to  avail  themselves 
of  all  the  power  which  an  extemporaneous  style,  or  any 
other,  may  give,  it  seems  to  be  a  duty  manfully  to  grapple 
with  this  question. 

There  are  certainly  strong  arguments  in  favor  of  extem- 
pore preaching : 

(1.)  It  stimulates  the  ])reaclier.  It  Avakes  him  up.  It 
makes  him  a  quick  thinker.  It  makes  him  master  of  his 
mental  powers.  It  goads  him  by  the  presence  and  sympathy 
of  an  expectant  audience.  It  often  originates  new  thoughts 
of  living  power,  that  could  not  have  come  into  the  mind 
in  the  calm  silence  of  the  study. 

(2.)  It  breaks  up  a  stiff ,  artificial  style.  Gossner,  quoted 
by  Hagenbach,  said,  "He  who  is  a  true  preacher  is  not 
obliged  first  to  meditate  and  conceive  at  a  writing-desk 
what  he  has  to  say,  but  with  trustful  courage  to  mount 
the  pulpit  and  speak,  even  as,  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  fiery 
tongues,  not  writing  pens,  fell  from  heaven  on  the  apostles." 

'  Hagenbach's  Grundlinien,  Lit.  und  Horn.,  p.  137. 


§  8.      CLASSIFICATIOX   OT    SERMONS  —  EXTEMPORE.        79 

In  extempore  speaking,  the  preacher  learns  to  go  at  once 
to  the  heart  of  things,  and  to  express  himself  in  a  direct 
manner.  He  thus  acquires  a  manly  straightforwardness. 
The  elaborate  beauties  and  fastidious  elegances  of  a  highly 
rhetorical  style  are  inconsistent  with  extempore  speaking. 
Extempore  speaking  tends  also  to  the  concrete  rather  than 
the  abstract;  to  vivid  manifestation  and  iUustration  of 
thought,  rather  than  technical  reasoning.  It  is  less  philo- 
sophical, but  has  more  of  flesh  and  blood  in  it ;  it  makes 
the  hearer  thrill  with  something  that  is  taken  from  the  hour 
in  which  he  lives,  the  thought  his  heart  is  busy  with,  and 
the  work  his  hands  are  glowing  with. 

(3.)  It  is  adapted  to  produce  immediate  effect.  It  ena- 
bles the  speaker  thus  to  feel  the  pulse  of  an  audience,  t(^ 
meet  its  exact  wants,  and  to  judge  of  its  state  by  those  fine 
and  delicate  signs  which  a  skilful  extemporaneous  preadier 
learns  to  detect.  It  gives  the  impression  that  one  is  jr'eally 
talking  to  the  audience  before  him,  and  to  no  other.  /Hence 
extemporaneous  preaching  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  |^imes  of 
revival ;  and  it  is  a  strong  argument  in  its  favor*,  that  it 
does  unconsciously  take  the  place  of  other  methods  in  times 
of  real  urgency.  i 

(4.)  It  has  more  of  outward  and  inward  freedom^  It 
gives  plaj^  to  the  eye,  the  arm,  the  finger,  the  whole  body, 
and  also  to  the  subtler  motions  of  the  soul ;  so  that  the 
whole  man  becomes  an  instrument  for  God's  Spirit  to  speak 
through  men.  Then  speech  is  electric;  then  there  can  be 
"eloquence."  And  perhaps  the  highest  conceivable  effi- 
ciency of  the  orator  and  of  the  preacher  has  been  brought 
out  in  extemporaneous  speech.  Though  every  speaker  is 
not  capable  of  eloquence,  every  true  preacher  has  probably 
done  Ms  best  at  a  moment  when  he  was  free,  when  the 
pressure  was  on  him,  when  he  must  speak  or  die,  and  when 
to  his  own  apprehension,  it  may  be,  he  is  making  the  most 
entire  and  conclusive  failure.  But  the  people  at  once  see 
the  difference  between  what  is  free  and  what  is  artificial  — 


80  PREACHING. 

between  sincerity  and  false  confidence.  Once  let  it  be 
understood  that  the  strait-jacket  has  been  thrown  off",  that 
the  soul  acts  unrestrainedly,  and  the  congregation  feels  it 
and  rejoices  in  it. 

In  this  method,  the  preacher  is  able  to  use  whatever 
thought  occurs  to  him  at  the  moment.  He  is  not  prevented 
by  fears  that  it  will  spoil  the  unity  of  his  sermon.  Locke 
says,  "Thoughts  are  best  which  drop  into  the  mind."  With 
all  previous  preparation,  room,  nevertheless,  should  be  left 
in  extemporaneous  speaking  for  purely  new  thoughts  — 
thoughts  which  literally  occur  at  the  moment.  Sometimes 
one  may  change  the  whole  current  of  his  discourse,  and 
dwell  upon  a  thought  as  the  main  thought,  which  he  in- 
tended to  make  only  a  side  thought,  or,  perhaps,  not  to 
introduce  at  all ;  and  this  is  the  ideal  of  extemporaneous 
preaching :  not  often  reached,  it  is  true,  but  sometimes 
reached,  when  the  speaker  is  inspired  with  perfect  freedom 
of  utterance. 

(5.)  It  enables  one  to  use  a  more  conversatiotial  style, 
both  of  thought  and  delivery.  This,  perhaps,  is  the  great- 
est advantage  of  the  extemporaneous  method,  that  it  serves 
to  abolish  a  strained  style,  which  supposes  certain  circum- 
stances, and  certain  characters,  and  certain  antagonisms, 
and  certain  wants,  that  do  not  exist  in  an  audience, — 
- — in  which  style  one  may  write,  but  cannot  talk,  —  and 
tends  to  make  preaching  more  like  ordinary  conversation, 
without  at  the  same  time  losing  its  dignity.  Let  a  man 
talk  to  his  audience,  and  if  he  does  sensibly  and  earnestly, 
every  one  will  listen  ;  just  as  everybody  will  listen  to 
any  man  who  converses  well.  The  moment  a  preacher 
ceases  declaiming,  and  begins  talking,  every  one  wakes  up. 
That  is  the  power  of  many  of  our  greatest  living  orators, 
both  clerical  and  secular.  These  men  do  not  talk  spasmodic 
nonsense,  but  their  "  forte  "  lies  in  uttering  fresh  and  sub- 
stantial thought  in  the  natural  language  of  ordinary  and 
earnest  conversation  among  men ;  they  talk  to  an  audience 


§  8.       CLASSIFICATION   OF    SERMONS  —  EXTEMPORE.        81 

as  one  clever  mau  talks  to  another  ;  they  gradually  bring  an 
audience  into  their  own  way  of  thinking  by  thus  stooping 
to  conquer.  This  style,  when  kept  free  from  familiarity  or 
lowness,  is  the  perfection  of  close,  atiectionate,  reasonable, 
interesting,  and  effective  preaching. 

We  remember  an  extemporaneous  sermon  preached  by  the 
French  Eomau  Catholic  Bishop  of  Quebec.  His  discourse 
was,  for  the  most  part,  in  its  substance  and  doctrine,  sheer 
Mariolatry ;  3^et  the  immense  assembly  hung  entranced  on 
his  words,  as  he  stood,  simply  erect,  without  gesture,  his 
hands  laid  passively  on  the  cushion  before  him,  while  he 
talked  in  a  natural  tone,  in  plain  but  beautifully-flowing 
periods,  and  without  hesitation. 

It  was  like  listening  to  a  strain  of  pleasing  music,  with 
nothing  highly  wrought,  but  bearing  the  minds  of  the  hear- 
ers steadily  upon  its  even,  calm,  and  rapid  flow.  It  was 
not  eloquence,  but  it  was  nevertheless  potent  to  hold  a 
great  multitude  in  rapt  attention,  and  by  its  simple  charm 
of  natural,  unaffected,  fluent  speech,  to  command  and  sway 
men's  minds. 

If  extemporaneous  speaking  tends  to  bring  about  this 
result,  viz.,  to  put  preachers  en  rapport  with  their  congre- 
gations, we  would  say.  Let  every  preacher  who  can  do  so 
begin  at  once  to  practise  it,  even  if  it  cost  him  a  complete 
revolution  of  his  mental  habits.  Better  live  in  a  cave  six 
months,  until  he  has  become  master  of  his  own  faculties 
of  mind  and  body,  than  to  be  a  dead  preacher,  who  cannot, 
with  all  his  writing,  reasoning,  and  preaching,  reach  an 
audience  or  a  soul. 

But  extemporaneous  preaching  should  be  of  the  right 
kind  —  not  the  semblance  and  sham.  What^  then,  is  ex- 
tempore preaching  f 

True  extempore  preaching  is  trusting  to  the  moment  of 
speaking  for  the  Jorm  of  words  in  which  the  thought  is 
expressed.  That  is  all.  The  carrying  of  the  idea  beyond 
that  leads  to  fanaticism  and  absurdity.     Extemporaneous 


82  PREACHING. 

speaking  has  relation  to  the  language  more  than  to  the 
thought;  it  is  catching  the  inspiration  "ex  tempore"  — 
from  the  present  moment  —  for  the  mode  of  uttering  that 
which  is  already  clear  in  the  mind.  Extempore  preaching 
is  not  unpremeditated  preaching.  If  extempore  preaching 
is  made  to  refer  to  the  speaking  of  totally  unpremeditated 
thought,  as  well  as  language,  we  would  have  none  of  it. 
Thus  purely  extempore  speaking  is  out  of  the  question, 
except  in  regard  to  brief  expressions  of  thought  and  feel- 
ing which  occur  spontaneously  in  the  excitation  of  the  mind 
upon  a  particular  theme,  and  do  so  sometimes  in  a  written 
as  well  as  an  extempore  discourse. 

Schleiermacher,  although  he  preached  extemporaneously, 
said,  "Before  going  into  the  pulpit,  the  sermon,  as  a  whole, 
—  that  is,  the  separate  thoughts  in  their  relation  to  all  the 
members,  and  to  the  whole,  —  should  be  clearl}^  in  the 
mind."^  The  argument  sometimes  used  for  not  making  a 
faithful  preparation  for  preaching  —  that  God  will  now,  as 
in  apostolic  times,  put  into  the  mouth  of  preachers  the 
words  they  shall  utter  —  is,  at  least,  highly  irreverent.  It 
is  also  a  false  view  of  Scripture,  and  only  an  excuse  for 
indolence.  There  is  a  kind  of  inspiration,  which,  at  favored 
moments,  comes  upon  true  preachers,  in  which  they  do  be- 
come the  mouthpieces  of  God's  Spirit ;  but  this  is  a  very 
difierent  thing  from  that  audacious  assumption  that  God 
will  inspire  one  at  the  moment  with  just  what  he  should 
say.  Bautaiu's  definition  of  extempore  speaking  is  this  : 
"Extemporization  consists  of  speaking  on  the  first  impulse ; 
that  is  to  say,  without  a  preliminary  arrangement  of  phrases. 
It  is  the  instantaneous  manifestation,  the  expression,  of  an 
actual  thought,  or  the  sudden  explosion  of  a  feeling  or 
mental  movement.  It  is  very  evident  that  extemporization 
can  act  only  on  the  form  of  ivords.'"^ 

a. 

'  Hagenbach,  Grund.  Lit.  unci  Horn.,  p.  137. 
*  Bautain  on  Extemp.  Speaking,  p.  3. 


§  8.       CLASSIFICATION   OF   SEEMOJSTS  —  EXTEJIPORE.        83 

We  will  give  a  few  jpracticdl  hints  for  extemporaneous 
speaking. 

(a.)  Train  yourself  to  tJiinh  without  luriting.  This 
power  of  mental  abstraction,  or  what  Dr.  Brown  calls  "the 
imperial  presence  of  mind,"  is  the  source  of  extempore 
speaking,  which  has  its  spring  in  the  thinking  faculty. 
Mental  discipline  tells  on  the  power  of  extemporaneous 
speech.  One  should  have  some  logical  and  theological 
training  before  he  can  speak  clearly  on  divine  themes ;  for 
"that  which  is  well  conceived  is  clearly  enunciated,"  says 
Bautain.  The  real  ability  for  extemporaneous  speaking- 
comes  from  having  clear  ideas,  not  merely  from  having 
the  faculty  of  language.  It  did  not  require  much  prepa- 
ration for  Luther,  nor,  in  more  modern  times,  Eobert  Hall 
and  John  Wesley,  to  preach  on  any  subject  connected  with 
divine  truth.  These  men  were  always  searching  into  divine 
truth ;  their  minds  were  working  constantly  upon  these 
great  subjects ;  they  could  preach  every  day,  and  every 
hour  almost,  as  Luther  and  Calvin  did.  And  so  it  may 
be  with  any  man  who  is  a  working  and  growing  theolo- 
gian, and  who  has  cultivated  a  homiletical  habit  of  mind. 
Such  a  man's  actual  preparation  for  speaking  may  be  brief. 
But  one,  unless  he  is  peculiarly  gifted  in  this  respect,  when 
beginning  to  speak  extemporaneously,  should  make  careful 
and  particular  preparation  for  it. 

(p.)  One  should  think  through  the  subject  beforehand. 
The  foundations  should  be  laid  firm  and  deep.  There  should 
be  no  indefiuiteness  or  obscureness  here.  Never  trust  to 
the  inspiration  of  the  moment  for  the  solid  parts  of  the 
discourse  —  the  main  ideas,  the  arguments,  the  proofs,  the 
conclusions.  These  should  be  thoroughly  arranged  in  the 
mind.  It  is  a  fatal  mistake  to  suppose  that  extempore 
preaching  will  succeed  without  such  previous  study ;  here 
is  the  mistake  that  has  lain  at  the  root  of  failure  in  extem- 
pore speaking.  Bautain  makes  a  great  deal  of  what  he 
calls  the  "  main  idea ;  "  there  must  be  this  inain  idea  in 


84  PREACHING. 

every  living  discourse,  and  this  should  be  fixed  firmly  in 
the  speaker's  mind.  It  will  form  its  own  plan,  and  every 
detail  will  group  itself  naturally  about  this  principal  idea. 
This  sustains  all,  and  must  never  for  a  moment  be  lost  sight 
of.  "Nothing,"  says  Bautain,  "is  so  fatal  to  extemporiza- 
tion as  this  wretched  facilit}^  of  the  mind  for  losing  itself 
in  details,  and  neglecting  the  main  point."  One  should 
also  avoid  the  common  error,  in  extemporaneous  speaking, 
of  talking  a  great  deal  about  unessentials ;  of  introducing 
long  and  stereotyped  phrases  of  parliamentary  or  argumen- 
tative persiflage  as  to  what  he  intends  to  prove  or  say. 

(c.)  Prepare  beforehand,  either  mentally  or  on  paper, 
the  actual  wording  of  your  main  proposition  and  the  prin- 
cipal divisions,  and  j^^rhaps  of  some  of  the  most  impor- 
tant passages.  It  may  be  recommended,  indeed,  to  some 
beginners  to  combine  the  two  methods  of  the  written  and 
extemporaneous  sermon;  i.  e.,  to  write  a  good  portion  of 
the  sermon, — the  body  of  the  sermon,  —  and  trust  the 
rest  to  the  utterance  of  the  moment.  The  illustrations, 
for  example,  may  be  given  extemporaneously,  and  will 
gain  decidedly  in  freedom,  Aavidness,  and  life.  But  per- 
haps it  is  best  at  first  to  write  out  the  sermon  altogether, 
and  then  destroy  it.  That  will  have  aroused  and  clarified 
the  mind ;  the  subject  will  have  become  a  familiar  road  for 
the  mind  to  travel ;  by  and  by  one  can  diminish,  or  give  up 
altogether,  the  written  preparation.  The  German  preach- 
ers pursue  this  method  of  previously  writing  their  sermons, 
and  then  preaching  them  without  the  manuscript.  The 
Welsh  do  it  also,  and  they  are  remarkable  preachers.  This, 
in  fact,  is  F.  B.  Zincke's  famous  plan  or  method  of  making 
an  extemporary  preacher.  He  says,  "Nor  will  the  practice 
of  extemporary  preaching  deprive  a  man  of  the  advantage 
of  attaining  to  that  accuracy  which  is  a  result  of  written 
composition.  I  am  addressing  myself  to  those  who  have 
energy  enough  to  persevere  for  some  years,  or  for  whatever 
time  may  be  required,  in  the  practice  of  carefully  compiling 


§8.      CLASSIFICATION   OF   SERMONS — EXTEMPORE.        85 

their  sermons  during  the  week,  and  then  preaching  them 
extemporarily  on  Sunday.  The  time  will  come  when  full 
notes,  containing  only  the  more  important  parts  in  extenso, 
will  be  sufficient,  and  at  last  nothing  more,  in  most  cases, 
be  needed  than  such  a  sketch  as  may  be  written  on  one  side 
of  half  a  sheet  of  note  paper,  the  rest  of  the  study  being 
carried  on  mentally,  or  without  the  aid  of  writing.  I  sup- 
pose that  for  several  years  more  or  less  of  writing  Avill 
be  necessary,  because  that  alone  will  demonstrate  to  the 
preacher  that  he  has  mastered  the  subject,  and  properly 
arranged  his  materials,  and  so  will  enable  his  mind  to  rest 
on  the  fact  that  it  has  already  produced  what  it  now  has 
only  to  reproduce  in  the  pulpit.  And  I  can  imagine  per- 
sons preferring  to  the  last  to  write  very  full  abstracts  of 
what  they  intend  to  say,  and  doing  this  from  a  religious 
regard  for  their  work.  A  sermon,  such  persons  will  feel, 
is  too  important  a  work,  too  much  depends  upon  it,  to  jus- 
tify the  preacher  in  leaving  anything  to  the  chances  of  the 
moment.  This  must  be  done  to  some  extent  in  a  debate, 
and  it  may  be  done  generally  in  secular  oratory,  when  the 
main  object  is  to  please  ;  but  it  is  irreverent  and  unwise  to 
trust  in  this  way  to  the  moment  for  the  matter  or  arrange- 
ment of  a  sermon.  It  will,  therefore,  I  think,  be  better 
that  the  preacher,  however  practised,  should  never  wholly 
lay  aside  the  pen."i  Zincke  considers  extemporary  preach- 
ing, instead  of  being  the  easiest,  to  be  the  most  laborious 
style  to  attain ;  he  labored  for  it  through  a  number  of 
years.  He  was  driven  to  do  so  through  poignant  shame 
at  the  indolent  ease  of  reading  written  sermons,  and  their 
comparatively  small  effect  upon  the  audience.  He  made  it 
a  conflict,  a  long  and  sore  struggle,  to  overcome  the  marked 
inaptitude  of  his  own  nature  and  mental  habits  for  extem- 
pore preaching,  because  he  wished  to  make  the  most  of 
himself  as  a  preacher,  and  to  be  faithful  in  his  work.     For  a 

'  The  Duty  and  Discipline  of  Extemporary  Preaching,  p.  33. 

8 


86  PREACHING. 

long  period,  therefore,  he  gave  his  earnest  study  to  the  com- 
position of  his  sermons ;  he  wrote  them  out  fully,  and  re- 
wrote them  ;  though  in  the  pulpit  he  entirely  discarded  notes, 
and  spoke  from  a  thorough  preparation  and  a  full  mind. 

Into  the  pulpit  itself,  Dr.  J.  W.  Alexander  advises,  "carry 
not  a  scrap  of  paper.  But  if  a  little  schedule  would  give 
more  confidence  at  first,  take  it."  We  should  say,  quite  de- 
cidedly, take  into  the  ipuljpit  a  written  sermon,  or  noticing. 

One  can  learn  to  swim  only  in  the  water.  Bautaiu  is 
strongly  opposed  to  making  use  of  any  notes  in  extempora- 
neous speaking ;  he  does  not  even  think  that  the  advice  of 
Cicero  should  be  regarded.  Dr.  Mcllvaine  says,  "Use  no 
notes."  Dr.  J.  W.  Alexander's  advice  is,  "Prepare  no 
words  beforehand." 

(c?.)  Cultivate  tJie  faculty  of  expression.  "For  you  must 
not,"  says  Bautain,  "grope  for  your  words  while  speaking, 
under  the  penalty  of  braying  like  a  donkey,  which  is  the 
death  of  a  discourse."  Not  only  the  power  of  thinking,  but 
the  power  of  uttering,  is  to  be  cultivated  ;  and  to  have  this 
power — never  to  be  at  a  loss  for  the  fit  word  —  this  itself  is 
a  noble  accomplishment.  The  faculty  of  expression  is  a  part 
of  clerical  education  that  has  been  too  much  neglected.  Pitt 
used  to  translate  aloud,  in  a  running'  method,  from  foreign 
languages,  being  critical  in  the  choice  of  his  words  ;  Cicero's 
method  was  to  read  an  author,  and  then  repeat  the  author's 
thoughts  in  his  own  words.  The  principle  of  association 
is  a  great  law  of  facile  expression ;  for  one  may  accustom 
himself  to  remember  what  he  has  to  say  even  by  a  word 
in  each  proposition  or  division,  —  by  some  word  naturally 
suggested  from  the  text  itself;  but  it  is  better  to  remember 
by  the  association  of  ideas,  than  of  words.  There  is,  per- 
haps, no  better  way  of  cultivating  the  power  of  expression, 
than  by  cultivating  the  habit  of  conversing  with  facility y 
accuracy,  and  correctness.  Let  no  one  allow  himself  to 
converse  loosely,  vaguely,  or  incoherently,  —  avoiding  both 
undue  precision  and  undue  laxness.     Yet  there  is  a  certain 


§   8.       CLASSIFICATION    OF   SERMONS  —  EXTEMPORE.        87 

mere  facility  of  expression,  or  fluency,  which  may  become  a 
dangerous  gift  to  a  speaker.  It  serves  him  in  the  j)hice  of 
thought,  and  it  will  be  soon  discovered  to  his  injury.  It  also 
tends  to  destroy  his  power,  by  giving  him  an  appearance  of 
arrogance,  or  a  dictatorial  manner.  More  of  humility,  and 
hesitancy  of  speech,  is  sometimes  efiective  in  a  young 
speaker.  What  have  been  called  "fluent,  complacent,  me- 
chanical utterances "  are  not  enough  for  the  pulpit. 

(e.)  Make  a  beginning  at  once.  Stand  not  shivering  on 
the  brink.  Eloquent  speaking  is  gained  by  always  working 
and  striving  for  the  power  of  free  and  forceful  utterance, 
and  by  giving  one's  whole  attention  to  it, — by  coming  up 
to  it  again  and  again,  even  if  one  fails  at  first.  It  is  doing 
it,  and  not  preparing  to  do  it.  Robert  Hall,  at  an  earlier 
day,  as  well  as  some  distinguished  extemporaneous  preach- 
ers of  the  present  day,  made,  it  is  said,  miserable  failures 
at  first  in  attempting  extemporaneous  addresses. 

(y.)  Do  not  choose  too  easy  or  familiar  subjects.  This 
is  a  common  error.  The  mind  should  be  interested  in  the 
development  of  some  new  and  specific  truth,  in  which  it  may 
be  thoroughly  roused  and  tasked. 

((/.)  Look  beyond  and  above  the  opinion  of  men  ujpon 
your  preaching .  To  speak  extemporaneously,  one  must 
have  courage.  Let  one  think  more  of  his  duty  than  of  his 
reputation.  If  one  has  this  spirit,  he  will  not  be  disheart- 
ened at  a  blunder,  nor  even  if  he  now  and  then  breaks 
down.  A  little  incorrectness  of  language,  or  halting  hesi- 
tation, in  extempore  speaking,  is  of  small  importance,  and 
will  not  be  censured  by  the  audience  so  much  as  the  speak- 
er imagines  —  especially  if  they  see  he  is  in  earnest.  A 
modern  writer  well  says  of  a  young  speaker,  "  Sometimes  a 
momentary  pause  —  a  hesitation  to  collect  the  thought  and 
utter  the  right  word  —  is  a  becoming  act  of  deference  to  an 
intellio-ent  audience."^     One  who  has  "a  mission  to  teach" 

*  Essays  on  Social  Subjects,  from  Saturday  Review- 


88  PREACHING. 

is  apt  to  forget  that  "  reserve  is  an  element  of  strength."  It 
is  better  not  to  be  always  finished  and  polished.  A  rough, 
ragged,  imperfectly  expressed  remark,  boldly  thrown  out 
and  left,  is  sometimes  more  suggestive  to  the  hearers  mind 
than  the  most  elaborate  paragraph.  One  should  not  go 
back  to  improve  a  sentence  in  extemporaneous  speaking. 
Let  him  press  on  boldly  to  the  end,  no  matter  how  he 
comes  out. 

But  as  the  undue  fear  of  man  vanishes,  so  much  of  the 
imaginary  difficulty  of  extempore  speaking  vanishes.  If  a 
great  part  of  extemporaneous  speaking  consists  in  preserv- 
ing one's  presence  of  mind,  what  will  better  enable  one  to 
do  this  than  to  look  beyond  man  to  God  ? 

(/i.)  3Iingle  the  written  and  extem^poraneous  methods. 
Let  one  preach  a  written  sermon  in  the  morning,  and  an 
extemporaneous  one  in  the  afternoon ;  and  let  him  never 
think  of  writing  out  his  weekly  lectures,  or  other  public  ad- 
dresses. But  a  man  who  does  not  write  much  cannot  speak 
well ;  therefore  it  is  usually  recommended  to  pursue  both 
methods.  Yet,  if  one  will  continue  to  write  and  study  care- 
fully, and  not  let  down  his  literary  standard,  but  be  con- 
stantly advancing  it,  then  he  may,  and  perhaps  should,  strive 
to  make  himself  altogether  an  extemporaneous  preacher. 
Only  let  him  not  get  too  easy  an  idea  of  extemporary  preach- 
ing ;  to  be  of  the  right  kind,  it  is  the  hardest  of  all.  If  he 
can  attain  to  it,  it  will  keep  his  mind  and  body  fresh ;  he 
will  not  become  the  slave  of  his  desk ;  he  will  be  released 
from  the  immense  manual  labor  of  writing  so  much,  and 
from  leaving  behind  him  a  thousand  sermons  stored  away 
in  a  barrel  in  the  garret,  to  be  devoured,  not  by  admiring 
men,  but  by  mice.  All  that  he  esteems  valuable  in  his  ser- 
mons he  can  save  and  write  out  after  preaching,  which  was 
Kobert  Hall's  and  F.  W.  Robertson's  method.  Professor 
Park  remarks  that  two  hundred  good  sermons  are  enough 
to  leave  for  a  long  life. 

(^.)    Cultivate  oratorical  delivery.     Here  elocution  is  of 


§  8.       CLASSIFICATION    OF   SERMONS  —  EXTEMPORE.        89 

great  importance.  The  written  sermon  depends  much  for 
its  interest  upon  its  carefully  condensed  thought ;  but  the 
extempore  speaker  must  have  everything  in  himself:  he 
must  have  the  charms  of  good  delivery,  the  trained  voice, 
the  natural  gesture,  and  the  dignified  and  expressive  atti- 
tude. He  needs  all  the  helps  that  can  be  given  by  the  eye, 
the  hand,  the  "  eloquence  of  the  body ;  "  for  it  is  with  him 
good  delivery  or  nothing.  He  should  acquire  a  clear,  dis- 
tinct articulation,  rising  and  falling  naturally  with  the 
thought ;  varied  and  yet  even  ;  neat  and  yet  capable  of  feel- 
ing, and  of  vehement,  rending  force ;  and,  above  all,  free 
from  tones  of  earthly  passion,  and  breathing  pure,  holy, 
spiritual  emotions.  The  preacher  may  be  his  own  master 
of  delivery  and  elocution  teacher.  It  is  thought,  chiefly, 
that  does  this.  It  is  said  that  Macready  studied  the  play  of 
Hamlet  seven  years  before  he  felt  himself  equal  to  act  it. 
Every  sentence,  every  word,  every  syllable,  had  received 
thought,  so  that  he  was  able  to  bring  out  its  full  meaning  in 
delivery,  to  give  it  its  efliective  emphasis,  to  be  the  vehicle 
of  the  spirit's  winged  words. 

This  is  an  intense,  unsettled  age.  Men  are  full  of  restless 
thought,  movement,  and  inquiry.  Those  who  would  influ- 
ence the  age  must  think  quickly  and  act  boldly.  We  are 
bound  to  try  every  method,  to  strain  every  nerve,  to  be 
preachers  equal  to  the  demands  of  the  time,  and  to  seize  its 
opportunities. 

If  we  imitate  our  true  model,  Christ,  we  shall  be  willing 
to  lose  ourselves,  in  order  to  gain  the  great  end  for  which 
the  gospel  was  given  —  to  win  men  to  a  higher  life.  As 
ministers  of  Christ,  we  are  to  have  really  but  one  business 
in  life,  and  that  should  be  done  well.  Oar  business  is  to 
]}reacli  the  gosjpel;  to  preach  it  successfully;  to  sufier  no 
personal  inconvenience,  or  indolence,  or  dead  theory,  to 
stand  for  a  moment  in  the  way  of  a  living  and  life-giving 
ministry.  "Xe^  the  dead  bury  their  dead^  but  go  thou  and 
preach  the  kingdom  of  God''' 


90  PREACHING. 


§  9.     Sermons  classified  according  to  their  Method  of 
Treatment, 

We  have  spoken  of  the  classification  of  sermons  according 
to  their  more  external  method  of  delivery ;  we  now  refer  to 
the  classification  of  sermons  in  regard  especially  to  their 
internal  character  and  treatment.  In  no  part  of  the  science 
of  Homiletics  (if  it  be  a  science)  is  there  more  of  confusion 
than  in  the  attempt  of  authors  to  classify  sermons  according 
to  their  intrinsic  design  and  character.  Every  writer  has  a 
system  of  his  own ;  therefore  we  have  not  thought  it  worth 
the  while  to  enter  largel}'^  into  this  matter  of  classification, 
but  simply  to  name  a  few  of  the  principal  classes  of  ser- 
mons, and  to  treat  of  these  incidentally,  as  they  come  up 
afterward,  in  describing  more  particularly  the  composition 
of  a  sermon. 

As  an  example  of  the  great  fertility  of  analysis  in  this  field, 
we  quote  "Gerard  and  Campbell's"  list  of  difierent  kinds 
of  sermons,  as  chiefly  adopted  by  Dr.  Fitch.  1.  Critical 
expository  lecture,  on  a  text  diflicult  of  exposition.  2.  Prac- 
tical ex'pository  lecture,  on  a  text  not  so  diiEcult  of  exposi- 
tion. 3.  Explanatory  sermon;  in  other  words,  "instructive" 
and  "explicator3\"  4.  Biorjraphical  sermon;  in  other  words, 
"commendatory,"  "panegyrical."  5.  Particidar  demon- 
strative, setting  forth  some  one  act  or  quality  of  a  good  life. 
6.  General  demonstrative,  presenting  the  sum  of  virtues  of 
one  life.  7.  Argumentative;  in  other  words,  "  convictive" 
or  " probatory."  8.  Pathetic,  presenting  motives  without  par- 
ticular reference  to  duties.  9.  General  persuasive ;  a  duty 
enforced  by  fit  motives.  10.  Particular  persuasive ;  a  duty 
enforced  by  some  one  motive  taken  for  text,  etc.,  etc.  Dr. 
Fitch,  however,  thinks  that  all  sermons,  in  respect  of  their 
method  of  treatment,  may  be  comprehended  under  the  three 
simple  divisions  of  Explanatory ,  Argumentative,  and  Per- 
suasive sermons.     While  he  thinks  that,  on  the  whole,  the 


§   9.       CLASSIFICATION  OF   SERMONS,   CONTINUED.  91 

topical  or  synthetic  form  of  a  sermon  is  the  most  profitable, 
he  is  in  favor  of  variety  in  the  forms  of  presenting  divine 
truth,  and  even  of  variety  in  the  treatment  of  a  particular 
passage  or  text,  sometimes  taking  the  explanatory  form, 
sometimes  the  argumentative.  He  is  of  the  opinion  that  the 
explanatory  form  allows  of  the  greatest  range  and  scope  of 
thought,  being  not  merely  confined  to  the  explanation  of  a 
text,  but  of  a  given  truth  or  doctrine  drawn  from  a  text.  It 
addresses  the  understanding  rather  than  the  passions,  and  is 
the  ordinary  method  of  laying  open  the  vast  treasures  of 
scriptural  truth  to  the  human  mind.  Discourses  relating  to 
life  and  character'  are  difficult,  but  profitable  as  setting  forth 
truth  "in  living  characters."  The  great  danger  is  in  over- 
stepping the  strict  bounds  of  truth.  Argumentative  dis- 
courses Dr.  Fitch  considers  to  be  best  for  young  writers, 
for  youth  is  the  argumentative  age,  and  such  discourses  are 
the  most  easily  susceptible  of  unity  of  treatment.  But  stiff, 
scholastic  forms  of  argumentation  should  be  avoided ;  the 
logic  should  be  animated  with  sentiment  and  feeling.  The 
unity  of  the  Persuasive  discourse  consists  not  so  much  in 
having  one  subject  or  argument,  as  in  having  one  tendency 
in  the  various  parts  to  affect  the  will  and  feelings.  We 
would  offer  the  following  more  simple  classification  of  ser- 
mons in  relation  to  their  mode  of  treatment :  — 

1.  As  depending  upon  the  manner  of  treating  the  text: 
(a.)  textual;  (b.)  tojjical;  (c.)  ex])ository,  or  exegetical- 
expository. 

2.  As  depending  upon  the  manner  of  treating  the  sub- 
ject: (a.)  doctrinal;  (b.)  ethical;  (c.)  7netaphysical ;  (d.) 
histoincal. 

3.  As  depending  upon  the  general  rhetorical  treatment: 
(a.)  argumentative ;  (b.)  meditative ;  (c.)  desci-i^ptive ;  (d.) 
hortatory. 

"We  will  not  enter  now  into  the  particular  discussion  of 
these  different  kinds  of  sermons,  as  something  more  will  be 
said  on  this  point  under  the  head  of  the  "Development"  of 
a  Sermon. 


92  PEE  ACHING. 

One  sermon  sometimes,  in  fact,  combines  all,  or  nearly 
all,  the  characteristics  of  treatment  which  have  been  men- 
jtioned;  although  generally  in  one  sermon  some  one  quality, 
or  some  one  characteristic  of  matter  or  form,  decidedly  pre- 
dominates, which  gives  it  its  stamp ;  but  even  the  simple 
classification  which  has  been  made  shows  the  great  variety 
there  may  be  in  the  treatment  of  religious  truth  from  the 
pulpit.  A  preacher,  from  his  peculiar  character  of  mind, 
may  naturally  fiill  into  one  habitual  kind  of  discourse,  say 
the  doctrinal ;  l)ut  he  should  guard  himself  agaiust  too  great 
a  uniformity.  He  should  seek  variety.  He  should  not 
always  preach  argumentative  sermons,  dealing  only  with 
rio:orous  loiric ;  but  he  should  now  and  then  write  an  his- 
torical  or  illustrative  discourse,  expounding  and  enriching 
his  theme  with  the  fruits  of  learning,  extensive  reading,  and 
the  study  of  human  nature.  Here  the  imagination  has  scope. 
The  laoral-descriptive  sermon  has  gone  too  much  out  of  use. 
Tw^o  of  the  noblest  and  most  interesting  of  Dr.  Fitch's  dis- 
courses are  "on  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac."  They  abound  in 
eloquent  descriptive  writing,  in  which  tiie  picture  is  wrought 
to  the  highest  degree  of  the  morally  picturesque.  The 
conversation  between  Abraham  and  Isaac,  and  the  thoughts 
of  Abraham,  as  the  father  and  child  climb  Mount  Moriah, 
are  imagined  with  great  pathos  and  power,  and  every 
minute  circumstance  in  the  narrative  is  seized  upon  and 
enlarged  with  the  greatest  dramatic  skill.  This  is  a  legiti- 
mate use  of  art.  Such  sermons  can  never  be  forgotten  by 
those  who  have  heard  them.  Power  is  lost  by  confining 
ourselves  too  exclusively  to  the  didactic  and  argumentative 
style,  and  not  taking  advantage  of  the  rich  narrative,  poetic, 
and  dramatic  portions  of  the  Bible.  The  textual,  or,  more 
strictly,  textual-expository  sermon,  where  the  lesson  of  the 
text,  or  the  idea  contained  in  the  passage,  is  grasped  and 
developed,  in  addition  to  the  simple  explanation  of  the 
passage,  is,  perhaps,  the  best  style  of  preaching.  This 
combines  analysis  and  synthesis.     The  method  of  continu- 


§  10.       PAETS    OF    A    SERMON.  93 

ous  exposition  of  the  Scriptures  in  some  regular  course  of 
pulpit  instruction  is  a  good  plan,  and  is  also,  as  we  have 
seen,  a  very  ancient  method  of  preaching.  Some  such 
method  of  reading  and  expounding  the  Scriptures  in  course 
as  exists  in  the  English  and  Lutheran  churches,  under  the 
system  of  "  the  Christian  year,"  is  worthy  of  attention ; 
for  a  minister  should  have  some  thoug-htful  and  regular 
system  in  his  preaching,  in  order  to  present  to  his  people 
as  much  of  inspired  truth  as  possible,  and  to  bring  forth 
from  his  treasury  ^Hhings  new  and  old.^^ 


SECOND  DIYISIOK 

THE  ANALYSIS   OF  A   SEEMON. 

§  10.    Parts  of  a  Sermon. 

Undek  this  head  we  refer  to  those  constituent  elements 
of  a  discourse  which  demand  attention  while  in  the  j^^'ocess 
of  constructing  a  sermon.  These,  however,  need  not  be 
distinctly  and  formally  expressed  in  every  sermon ;  but 
they  belong  to  the  essential  structure,  the  osseous  frame- 
work, of  ever}'^  intelligible  discourse,  which  must  be  made 
conformable  to  the  laws  of  the  human  mind.  In  any  formal 
address  we  cannot  dispense  with  such  grand  divisions  as  the 
Introduction,  the  Argument,  and  the  Conclusion;  for  every 
true  discourse  must  have  at  least  a  beginning,  a  middle, 
and  an  end  ;  and  the  beginning  and  end  are  naturally  of  less 
dimensions  than  the  middle.  In  like  manner  every  human 
frame  has  a  head,  body,  and  extremities  ;  every  rock  has  a 
foot,  middle,  and  summit;  every  tree  has  a  root,  trunk, 
and  crown.  1 

^  Hagenbacb's  Grundlinien  Lit.  und  Horn.  / 


94  PREACHING. 

Vinet's  analysis  of  a  sermon,  in  his  Homiletics,  is  some- 
what technical,  and  comprises  the  following  parts  :  1.  The 
Subject  or  the  Text.  2.  The  Homily  or  Paraphrase.  3.  The 
Matter.     4.  The  Explication.     5.  The  Proof. 

A  less  formal  and  technical,  yet  plainer  and  more  ex- 
tended analysis,  wonld  be  the  following,  which  we  shall 
adopt:  1.  The  Text.  2.  The  Introduction.  3.  The  Ex- 
planation. 4.  The  Proposition.  5.  The  Division.  6.  The 
Development.     7.  The  Conclusion. 

This  general  method  of  partitioning  a  sermon  varies  in 
different  sermons.  It  depends,  in  fact,  upon  the  nature  of 
the  discourse  itself,  which  develops  its  outward  form  accord- 
ing to  its  own  internal  law,  and  has,  or  should  have,  one 
individual  organic  unity. 

It  is  our  intention  to  exhibit,  not  the  invariable  form  of 
every  individual  sermon,  but  rather  the  parts  that  legiti- 
mately enter  into,  and  that  generally  should  and  do  enter 
into,  the  composition  of  a  well-constructed  sermon.  We 
shall  try  to  present  the  ideal  sermon  in  all  its  parts ;  and 
although  the  logical  method  of  partition  is  regarded,  yet 
it  is  chiefly  the  rhetorical,  or  the  practical,  or,  more  truly 
still,  the  natural  order  that  will  guide  us  ;  for,  to  use  Vinet's 
words,  "  the  dj^namical  is  preferable  to  the  mechanical  style 
of  sermon." 

§  11.     The  Text. 

The  text  —  from  texo,  "to  weave,"  or  textus,  a  "web," 
—  is  that  which  forms  the  "Aveb,"  or  "tissue,"  or  "main 
thread,"  of  the  discourse.  The  "text"  of  a  sermon  is,  of 
course,  some  genuine  word  of  Scripture  ;  although  the  Bible 
itself,  as  a  whole,  is,  par  eminence,  "the  Text." 

As  to  the  scriptural  authority  for  the  use   of  texts   in 
preaching,  we  certainly  find  some  reason  for  the  general' 
principle  of  employing  a  portion  of  Scripture  as  the  ground- 


§  11.       THE    TEXT.  95 

work  of  discourse,  in  the  Old  Testament,  us  in  Nehemiah 
8:8;  and  also  in  the  New  Testament,  in  our  Lord's  exam- 
ple in  Luke  4 :  16-27,  and  in  the  example  of  the  apostles 
in  Acts  13  :  15-44,  and  Acts  15  :  30,  and  in  other  places. 
The  basis  of  the  apostles'  preaching  was  usually  some  les- 
son read  from  the  law  or  the  prophets  ;  and  as  has  been  said, 
"even  if  Christ  and  his  apostles  did  not  strictly  conform 
themselves  to  the  use  of  texts,  it  may  be  answered  that 
they,  in  their  preaching,  furnished  the  texts  for  us." 

While  the  general  historical  use  of  texts,  or  the  founding 
of  the  sermon  directly  upon  the  word  of  God,  is  to  be 
traced  back  to  the  earliest  ages,  the  use  of  the  single  brief 
text  in  the  more  confined  manner  of  our  times,  as  standing 
for  the  particular  theme  of  the  discourse,  is  ascribed  to  the 
Presbyter  Musmus  of  Marseilles,  in  the  fifth  century.  It 
was,  however,  by  no  means  the  uniform  custom  of  preach- 
ers in  the  first  centuries,  nor  even  down  to  the  time  of  the 
Eeformation,  to  employ  specific  texts  in  preaching,  although 
about  the  time  of  Luther  the  custom  was  quite  generally 
adopted. 

As  to  the  objections  to  the  use  of  texts,  Vinet  himself 
says  (Homiletics,  p.  96)  that  "what  gives  a  Christian 
character  to  a  sermon  is  not  the  use  of  a  text,  but  the 
spirit  of  the  preacher."  He  says  also,  "The  use  of  iso- 
lated texts,  joined  to  the  necessity  of  never  preaching  with- 
out a  text,  has  certainly,  in  its  rigor  and  absoluteness, 
something  false,  something  servile,  which  narrows  the  field, 
confuses  the  thought,  puts  restraint  upon  the  individuality 
of  the  preacher." '  For  a  perfect  defence  of  the  use  of 
texts,  he  thinks  that  every  text  should  contain  a  complete 
subject,  and  every  subject  should  find  a  complete  text.  As 
every  sermon,  he  argues,  rests  upon  a  thesis,  which  is  an 
abstract  truth  complete  in  itself;  then  a  text,  to  be  what  it 

'  Homiletics,  chap,  iii.,  p.  81. 


96  PREACHING. 

should  .be,  should  contain  a  perfect  theme;  and  few  texts 
do  this.  Viuet,  however,  on  the  whole,  argues  for  the  use 
of  texts,  as  a  custom  sanctified  by  the  practice  of  the  church, 
and  as  aftbrdiug  more  advantages  than  disadvantages.  But 
to  bring  these  objections  into  a  more  definite  form,  — 

1.  The  use  of  a  text  2')reve7its  the  unify  of  the  discourse. 
Here  the  objection  rests  upon  the  fact  that  the  sermon  is 
necessarily  built  upon  the  rules  of  classical  eloquence — the 
ancient  oration  not  strictly  demanding  a  text.  But  this 
idea  of  the  sermon,  even  if  admissible,  was  one  of  later 
introduction,  and  did  not  belong  to  it  originally,  and  is  not 
essential  to  it ;  its  essence  being  simply  an  address,  aiming 
to  bring  the  word  of  God  to  bear  effectively  upon  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  the  people.  But  even  if  the  sermon  be  a  true 
oration,  it  may  be  said  that  the  orators  of  antiquity  had  no 
infallible  truth  to  speak  from  as  a  basis  ;  if  they  had  pos- 
sessed this,  they  would  doubtless  have  reasoned  from  it. 
All  writings,  to  them,  were  of  little  or  no  higher  authority 
than  their  own  thoughts ;  they  had  no  inspired  word  of 
wisdom  to  draw  from.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  prac- 
tice of  speaking  from  some  text,  or  definite  proposition, 
was  frequently  the  custom  of  Greek  and  Eoman  orators. 
Demosthenes  almost  always  spoke  upon  some  special  sum- 
mons, or  indictment,  or  carefully-worded  motion,  introduced 
into  a  deliberative  assembly,  which  served  him  for  a  text. 
And  this  has  continued  to  be  the  custom  in  forensic  and 
parliamentary  address  formed  upon  classic  models ;  men 
speak  to  a  point  of  law,  a  special  motion  or  resolution,  or 
else  their  speaking  lacks  definiteness  and  unity. 

But  we  argue  further  that  the  true  use  of  the  text  does 
promote  the  unity  of  a  sermon.  The  main  truth  of  the 
text,  however  complex  the  passage  may  be,  should  form 
the  directive  and  unifying  law  of  the  sermon.  It  is  not  a 
true  sermon  which  simply  presents  the  exegesis  of  the  text 
—  which  merely  explains  it ;  but  that  is  a  true  sermon 
which  develops  the  text,  and  which  is  moulded  in  all  its 


§  11.       THE    TEXT.  97 

parts  by  one  organic  principle  of  life  that  springs  from  the 
inspired  word. 

2.  That  the  use  of  a  text  hampers  the  discourse.  The 
idea  is,  that  a  short  text  cannot  afford  enough  matter  for  a 
long  discourse ;  and  thus  the  mind  of  the  speaker  must  be 
continually  fettered  by  the  narrow  requirements  of  his  text ; 
it  cannot  act  with  perfect  freedom. 

One  answer  to  this  is,  that  it  is  a  good  thing  to  compel 
the  speaker  to  concentrate  his  thoughts  and  to  restrain  him- 
self from  rambling  discourse.  This  is  not  an  enfeebling  but 
an  enriching  process.  One  goes  over  less  surface,  but  he 
sinks  deeper.  We  answer  again,  that  there  are  few  texts 
which  do  not  contain  the  substance  of  more  truth  and  of 
larger  discourse  than  most  men  are  capable  of  drawing 
from  them.  This  objection  is  founded  on  the  idea  that  the 
Scriptures  are  a  book,  like  a  human  book,  capable  of  ex- 
haustion. Besides  this,  the  literal  and  servile  following 
out  of  a  passage  is  not  required.  This  following  out  of  a 
text,  word  by  word,  and  step  by  step,  without  an  inner 
grasp  of  its  meaning,  is,  after  all,  but  a  superficial  treatment 
of  it ;  it  is  what  Hagenbach  calls  "  mosaic-preaching,"  or 
making  small  bits  of  sermons  on  every  member  of  the  text, 
—  arranging  these  along  together,  sticking  them  side  by 
side,  —  and  not  one  sermon,  embracing  the  truth  of  the 
whole  of  it.  The  text  need  exert  no  tyranny  over  the  free 
thought  of  him  who  has  comprehended  its  spirit,  and  seized 
upon  its  true  meaning  and  scope.  His  mind  is  inspired 
and  freed,  rather  than  hampered. 

3.  Texts  cannot  he  found  which  form  jperfect  theses  for 
all  subjects  imj^ortant  to  he  discussed  in  the  pulpit.  This 
is  really  the  main  stress  of  Vinet's  objection.  We  answer 
that  the  Bible  contains  the  seeds  of  all  religious  truth,  or 
else  it  is  not  a  suiScient  revelation.  It  may  be  that  the 
truth  is  sometimes  contained  in  a  concrete  form  in  the 
Scriptures ;  but  that  is  better  than  an  abstract  form  for 
the  preacher,  because  it  is  vital  and  self-inspiring.     It  may 


98  PREACHING. 

stand  thus  as  a  generic  truth  that  can  be  analyzed  and  ap- 
plied ;  or  as  a  specific  truth,  presenting  at  least  one  aspect 
of  the  subject,  which  has  a  root  in  the  general  principle,  and 
which  thus  legitimately  opens  to  the  discussion  of  the  whole 
theme. 

All  these  and  other  objections  will  vanish  when  we  re- 
gard the  minister  in  his  true  light,  as  an  interpi^eter  of  the 
word  of  God  to  7nen.  Whether  conformed  to  classical  or 
unclassical  rules,  the  minister's  responsibility  is  to  make 
known  to  men  the  will  of  God,  and  this  will  is  contained 
most  perfectly  in  the  Scriptures ;  and  although  he  may 
preach  the  word  of  God  sometimes  without  taking  a  text 
from  the  Bible,  yet  so  long  as  he  is  a  minister  of  the  word, 
he  will  not  find  a  subject  proper  to  be  preached  upon,  for 
which  he  cannot  find  a  legitimate  text  in  the  Scriptures. 

Let  us,  on  the  other  hand,  look  at  the  true  design  and 
advantages  of  the  use  of  texts.     They  are  chiefly  fourfold. 

1 .  The  use  of  the  text  has  the  sanction  of  an  ancient  and 
consecrated  custoin.  It  is  the  way  in  which  the  Christian 
church  has  been  taught  the  word  of  God,  and  the  way  in 
which  the  truth  has  been  preached  to  men,  from  the  earliest 
times,  and  it  has  therefore  accumulated  pow^er  and  solem- 
nity. What  possible  gain,  then,  would  there  be  in  cutting 
loose  from  this  ancient  custom  of  founding  the  instruction 
of  the  pulpit  upon  a  definite  portion  of  the  word  of  God, 
and  of  delivering  a  religious  essay,  or  address,  from  an  inde- 
pendent or  human  point  of  view  ? 

2.  The  use  of  the  text  serves  to  interpret  and  explain  the 
Scriptures.  This  is  nearly  all  the  Bible  truth  that  some  hear- 
ers get  in  the  course  of  their  lives ;  and  this  is  the  way  that 
they  learn  what  is  contained  in  the  Bible.  A  clearer  under- 
standing of  the  Scriptures  is  thus  promoted  ;  and  this  we 
look  upon  as  the  great  advantage  of  having  a  definite  pas- 
sage of  the  word  of  God  to  preach  upon.  The  use  of  the 
text  seems  to  remind  the  preacher  of  his  chief  responsibility 


§   11.       THE    TEXT.  99 

as  a  minister  of  the  word.  Every  text  he  chooses  says  to 
him,  "Preach  the  preaching  that  I  bid  thee.  Preach  not 
yourself,  but  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord."  And  one  text  often 
comprehends  a  whole  system  of  truth,  the  whole  of  Chris- 
tianity —  as  the  entire  arch  of  heaven  is  said  to  be  reflected 
in  a  drop  of  dew. 

3.  The  use  of  the  text  lends  a  divine  authority  to  the  ser- 
mon. It  recognizes  the  authority  of  the  word  of  God  as  the 
basis  of  all  true  preaching,  and  the  truth  itself  has  a  convert- 
ing power.  "  The  law  of  the  Lord  is  perfect,  converting 
the  soul;  the  testimony  of  the  Lord  is  sure,  making  wise  the 
simple.'^  ^' Wow  ye  are  clean  through  the  word  I  have  spohen 
unto  you^  ^^ Sanctify  them  through  thy  truth;  thy  word  is 
truth.''''  ^^ For  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel  of  Christ; 
for  it  is  the  potcer  of  God  tmto  salvation  to  every  one  that 
believeth;  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to  the  Greeh.''^  "/So 
then  faith  cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing  by  the  word 
of  God.'' 

The  use  of  the  text  as  the  foundation  of  the  sermon  leads 
us  to  see  and  feel  that  it  is  the  authoritative  word  of  God, 
not  the  doubtful  word  of  man,  which  is  set  forth.  This 
gives  the  preacher  a  more  than  personal  authority,  and  it  has 
also  a  reflex  influence  upon  the  hearer,  awakening  in  him' 
a  renewed  reverence  for  God  and  his  word,  which  perhajos 
had  become  dulled.  He  is  put  in  mind  that  there  is  a  sure 
Mord  of  prophecy  given  from  heaven  to  men,  an  infallible 
standard  of  faith  and  practice,  by  which  at  last  he  shall  be 
judged. 

4.  The  use  of  the  text  serves  to  introduce  and  limit  the 
subject  of  discourse.  It  obliges  the  preacher,  or  should  do  so, 
to  have  a  definite  subject  of  remark,  and  it  affords,  too,  a  bet- 
ter subject  than  the  preacher,  even  if  left  to  himself,  would 
probably  choose  for  the  spiritual  instruction  of  his  hearers. 
And  with  the  whole  Bible  to  select  from,  the  preacher  need 
never  be  at  a  loss  for  subjects  ;  the  great  trouble  is  to  choose 
among  the  multitude  of  subjects  that  the  word  of  God  pre- 


100  PEE  ACHING. 

sents.  The  proper  use  of  texts  is  thus  promotive  of  variety 
in  preaching ;  for  where  the  mind  naturally  runs  into  one 
track  of  thinking,  the  very  responsibility  laid  upon  the 
preacher  to  give  something  like  a  comprehensive  view  of 
the  word  of  God,  compels  him  to  choose  a  great  variety  of 
themes. 

We  would  now  consider  the  main  principles  to  guide  us 
in  the  choice  of  texts. 

1.    The  text  should  he  the  word  of  God. 

^^ If  any  man  speak,  let  him  speah  according  to  the  oracles 
of  God.''  All  preaching  should  have  a  biblical  truth, ''a 
loord  of  the  Lord,''  in  it ;  it  should  be  a  real  nq^qi-Teiu^  spring- 
ing from  a  divine,  not  human,  root.  To  illustrate  this  prin- 
ciple more  carefully,  — 

(a.)  It  should  not  be  drawn  from  any  apocryphal  writing. 

(7>.)  It  should  not  be  of  doubtful  authenticity.  How  far 
texts  should  be  chosen  from  books  of  whose  canonical  au- 
thorship, or  even  authenticity,  there  is  more  controversy 
than  of  others,  —  as  the  books  of  Daniel,  Ecclesiastes,  Second 
of  Peter,  Hebrews,  and  Revelation,  —  all  we  can  say  is,  that 
English  and  American  criticism  has  not  yet  reached  the 
sublimations  of  German  criticism  ;  for  the  critical  faculty, 
rather  than  the  faculty  of  faith,  —  the  faculty  of  believing  as 
little  as  possible,  — has  been  developed  in  Germany  during 
the  last  half  century.  The  passion  for  scientific  investiga- 
tion should  be  subordinated  in  the  preacher  to  the  practical 
fiiculty.  He  should  look  for  the  word  of  God  from  every 
source,  and  in  all  its  multiform  modes  of  communication, 
rather  than  be  continually  striving  to  diminish  and  narrow 
down  the  field  of  inspired  truth.  Every  book  of  the  Bil)le, 
at  least,  stands  upon  its  own  evidences.  The  preacher  should 
certainly  examine  those  evidences  with  care ;  but  no  book 
of  Scripture  has  been  left  unassailed ;  even  the  Gospel  of 
John  has  been  the  theme  of  peculiar  hostility.  Shall  we 
discontinue  to  take  texts  from  John's  Gospel,  because,  for- 


§   11.      THE   TEXT.  101 

sooth,  this  or  that  German  critic  has  doubted  its  canouicity  ? 
And  so  of  the  book  of  Hebrews,  and  of  Revelation.  Chris- 
tianity does  not  fall  even  with  these  great  books.  Paul 
may  not,  indeed,  have  written  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
nor  John,  the  apostle,  the  Apocalypse  ;  but  does  this  contro- 
versy as  to  their  authorship  diminish  their  essential  value? 
and  will  the  controversy  be  settled  in  our  lives,  and  while 
the  world  stands  ?  Everything  that  has  been  assailed  is  not, 
for  that  reason,  less  true  or  divine.  The  proof  of  the  inspi- 
ration of  these  books,  both  outward  and  inward,  is  over- 
whelmingly great,  far  greater  than  the  arguments  for  their 
non-inspiration ;  and  they  remain  in  the  canon,  and  con- 
tinue to  nourish  the  faith  and  piety  of  the  church,  ak  they 
have  done  for  ages.  Let  us  then  continue  freely  to  use 
these  precious  portions  of  the  word  of  God,  though  there 
may  be  peculiar  difficulties  that  remain  to  be  cleared  up 
respecting  their  human  authorship ;  or,  perhaps  we  should 
say,  instead  of  "peculiar,'*  more  difficulties  than  attend  the 
other  books  of  the  Bible. 

(c.)  It  should  not  disregard  the  analog^/  of  faith.  We 
mean  by  this  the  right  dividing  of  the  word  of  God,  in  rela- 
tion both  to  the  essential  and  the  relative  importance  of 
every  portion  of  Scripture.  Thus  one  should  not  preach 
Judaism  instead  of  Christianity,  or  dwell  upon  the  Old  Tes- 
tament with  such  continuous  intensity  as  to  draw  his  inspi- 
ration from  the  spirit  of  the  Old,  rather  than  of  the  New, 
whose  ministers  we  are.  When  we  preach  from  the  Old 
Testament,  we  should  surely  seek  to  find  the  New  Testa- 
ment in  it  —  the  testimony  of  Christ,  the  analogy  of  faith. 
The  Old  Testament  is  the  New  Testament  in  its  germ,  and 
therefore  cannot  be  neglected  by  the  preachers  of  Christ ;  but 
we  should  choose  our  texts,  and  treat  them  in  such  a  way 
as  that  they  may  all  bear  upon  the  "tricth  as  it  is  in  Jesus;'* 
and  we  think,  indeed,  that  a  minister  of  the  New  Testament 
should  preach  most  of  the  time  from  the  New  Testament,  as 
being  the  fuller  revelation,  the  perfect  truth.  The  Old 
9* 


102  I'KEACHINO. 

Testament  is  more  especially  the  law,  and  therefore  prepar- 
ative, but  the  New  is  more  truly  the  gospel  of  the  grace  of 
God,  of  his  perfect  manifestation  in  his  Sou ;  and  even  in 
tjie  New  Testament  itself  there  are  some  portions  more 
particularly  to  be  chosen  and  dwelt  upon,  as  containing 
more  of  the  truth  and  riches  of  Christ. 

(fZ.)  It  should  not  be  an  incorrect  translation.  The  cor- 
rect rendering  of  a  text  should  certainly  always  be  given, 
even  though  our  English  translation  of  the  passage  be  not 
entirely  literal;  for  a  preacher  should  establish  his  people 
on  the  original  text,  and  educate  them  up  to  this  idea, 
though  he  ought  to  do  this  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  impair 
confidence  in  our  own  version,  which  is  admitted  to  contain 
no  essential  error  or  perversion  of  the  truth,  but  he  may,  in 
a  proper  way,  let  them  understand  that  the  scholarship  of 
the  present  time  is,  as  would  be  naturally  expected,  more 
advanced  than  formerly,  though  great  tact  and  prudence  are 
to  be  employed  in  doing  this.  The  continual  repetition  of 
the  phrases,  "or,  as  it  is  in  the  original,"  "more  cori'ectly 
translated,"  "more  literally  rendered,"  weaken  confidence; 
and  rather  than  introduce  these  phrases  commonly  and  care- 
lessly, similar  texts  of  correct  interpretation,  conveying  the 
same  truth,  should  be  used  in  preference. 

But  the  exact  rendering  of  a  passage  gives  it  often  an  un- 
expected beauty  and  force ;  even  the  right  punctuation  of  a 
passage  adds  vastly  to  its  homiletical  value. 

How  immeasurably  different  is  the  Roman  Catholic  read- 
ing, "  I  say  unto  thee  this  day.  Thou  shalt  be  with  me  in  Par- 
adise," from  the  true  rendering,  "I  say  unto  thee,  To-day 
shalt  thou  be  with  me  in  Paradise"  P  The  more  literal  ren- 
dering of  d/'«Ai3acc.ic,  in  2  Tim.  4  :  6,  by  loosening,  instead  of 
"departure,"  brings  out  an  unexpected  and  beautiful  mean- 
ing of  the  old  mariner  nearly  ready  to  cast  off  from  the 
world,  and  sail  forth  on  the  sea  of  eternity.    In  2  Pet.  3  :  12, 

'  Bib.  Sac,  October,  1868. 


§   11.       THE    TEXT.  103 

ans-CSoviug  might  very  well  be  rendered  in  the  active  and  more 
stimulating  sense  of  "  looking  for  and  hastening  the  day  of 
God."  In  Gal.  3  :  24,  nuiduyioyog  should  be  translated,  "the 
slave  who  leads  the  child  to  the  house  of  the  schoolmaster ;  " 
so  the  law  leads  us  to  our  teacher,  Christ,  that  we  may  be 
taught  and  justified  by  faith.  1  Cor.  4  :  4,  O^Siv  ejLtavTib 
avvoiSa,  instead  of  meaning,  "I  know  nothing  of  myself," 
is,  literally,  "I  am  not  conscious  to  myself  of  any  guilt," 
and  yet  I  am  not  thereby  justified ;  showing  that  even  the 
unconsciousness  of  his  sins  cannot  justify  the  sinner  —  an 
important  horailetical  and  practical  sense.  Numerous  simi- 
lar passages  might  be  mentioned,  and  are  familiar;  yet  how 
pertinaciously  some  faulty  translations  have  been  preached 
upon  !  not,  perhaps,  to  the  inculcation  of  error,  but  certainly 
without  a  nice  regard  to  exact  truth.  The  text  in  Acts  2G  : 
28,  "Almost  thou  persuadest  me  to  be  a  Christian,"  has  been 
used  to  serve  as  the  basis  of  discourses  on  "being  almost  a 
Christian  ;  "  whereas  it  would  seem  to  have  be^n  a  poor  jest 
of  Agrippa's,  to  the  efiect  that  Paul  should  be  foolish  enough 
to  expect  that  in  so  short  a  time,  or  by  so  little  effort,  he, 
Agrippa,  should  be  made  a  Christian  !  If  this  indeed  is  the 
true  meaning,  it  should  be  followed,  although,  in  this  case, 
it  is  hard  to  give  up  the  commonly  received  rendering ;  but 
if  it  is  not  the  meaning  of  the  text,  it  should  not  be  so  used. 
The  beautiful  passage,  so  often  used,  in  1  Cor.  13  :  12, 
"For  now  we  see  through  a  glass  darkly,"  would  be  stronger 
still  if  rendered  literally,  "  For  now  we  see  in  a  mirror  ob- 
scurely (enigmatically)."  The  idea  is  not  that  of  looking 
through  a  glass ;  but  it  is  the  imperfect  reflection  of  an  ob- 
ject in  a  steel  mirror  of  the  apostle's  time,  compared  with 
the  actual  sight  of  the  object  itself.  This  is  likened  to  the 
reflection  of  divine  truth  in  these  lower  works  of  God,  as 
compared  with  the  future  clear  beholding  of  that  truth  in 
God  himself.  The  translation  of  "temptation,"  instead  of 
"bodily  infirmity,"  in  Gal.  4  :  14,  exposes  the  passage  to  the 
false  and  pernicious  idea  sometimes  brought  out  in  preaching 


104  PREACHING. 

upon  it,  that  the  apostle  was  in  the  power  or  continual 
temptation  of  some  sinful  habit  which  had  fastened  itself 
upon  him,  so  as  to  be  well  nigh  irresistible  —  a  totally  in- 
correct meaning,  for  the  "temptation"  here  is  the  trial 
occasioned  by  some  physical  disease  or  weakness. 

Biblical  hermeneutics  is  the  preacher's  life-long  study. 
He  should  have  the  principles  of  interpretation  clearly 
established  in  his  mind,  so  that  they  may  be  constantly 
applied  in  practice ;  for  his  material  for  preaching  lies  in 
the  Bible.  The  word  of  God  is  his  field.  Mere  fragmen- 
tary studies  of  the  word  of  God,  therefore,  for  the  purpose 
of  selecting  and  elucidating  individual  texts  for  the  material 
of  preaching,  are  not  enough ;  his  noble  and  diflicult  office 
is  to  be  an  interpreter  of  the  whole  word  of  God  to  men. 
He  should  explore  it  thoroughly,  its  heights  and  depths, 
leaving  no  unknown  land.  He  should  make  a  systematic 
study  of  the  Bible,  following  its  books  connectedly,  accord- 
ing to  the  law  of  harmonious  development,  and  not  being 
content  with  the  investigation  of  isolated  texts  upon  a  par- 
ticular theme.  Thus  Whately  says,  "Beware  of  classing 
texts  together  in  regard  to  their  subjects  alone,  without  any 
regard  to  the  jperiods  in  which  successive  steps  were  made 
in  the  Christian  revelation — jumbling  confusedl^^  Evangel- 
ists, Acts,  Epistles.  This,  among  other  things,  makes  Sociu- 
ians,  who  are  right  up  to  a  certain  point,  but  stop  short  in 
the  middle  of  the  gradual  revelation ;  they  have  the  blos- 
som without  the  fruit.  Jesus  Christ  was  first  made  known 
as  a  man  sent  from  God,  whom  God  anointed  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  with  power ;  then  as  the  promised  Christ ;  then 
a,s  He  in  whom  '  dwelt  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bod- 
ily,' in  whom  'God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh,'  in  M'hom 
'God  was  manifesting  himself  unto  the  world.' "^ 

If  the  preacher  studies  the  Bible  as  a  whole,  then,  when 
he  comes  to  the  interpretation  of  a  single  text,  or  passage  of 

>  E.  Jane  Whately's  Life  of  Whately,  vol.  i.,  p.  207. 


§  11.       THE   TEXT.  105 

Scripture,  be  sees  its  proper  relations,  limitation^,  scope,  and 
bearing  ;  and  tbe  philological  exegesis  of  au  individual  text, 
tbougb  tbe  first,  is  tberefore  sometimes  tbe  least  part  of  tbe 
matter.  Its  real,  spiritual  interpretation  as  an  harmonious 
portion  of  God's  word  is  of  higher  import ;  for  the  Spirit, 
who  inspires  tbe  whole,  who  gives  unity  to  tbe  whole,  must 
breathe  new  life  into  tbe  word,  and  bring  back  its  original 
power,  its  divine  meaning.  It  was  said  of  Edward  Irving, 
who,  with  all  bis  errors,  had  some  grand  traits  as  a  preacher, 
that  "the  Bible  w^as  to  him,  not  tbe  foundation  from  which 
bis  theology  was  to  be  substantiated  or  proved,  but  a  divine 
word,  instinct  with  meaning  and  life,  never  to  be  exhausted, 
and  from  Avhich  light  and  guidance  —  not  vague,  but  partic- 
ular—  could  be  brought  for  every  need."^  These  remarks 
lead  us  to  add,  as  coming  under  this  general  head,  another 
principle  in  the  choice  of  a  text :  — 

(e.)  It  should  be  suggested  by  the  regidar  study  of  the 
Scnjytures,  rathei'  than  by  accident.  This  we  have  before 
remarked  upon.  Tbe  text  should  rather  choose  than  be 
chosen ;  it  should  spring  out  of  the  habitual  meditation 
of  the  word  of  God.  There  should  be  a  certain  divine 
order  in  tbe  selection  of  texts,  and  tbe  mind  should,  in 
some  true  sense,  be  guided  by  tbe  Holy  Spirit  in  the  selec- 
tion of  proper  texts.  The  text  should  be  the  text  to  be 
preached  upon,  because  tbe  Spirit  has  brought  the  mind  of 
tbe  preacher  to  it  —  has  led  bis  thoughts,  studies,  and  de- 
sires up  to  tbe  open  door  of  tbe  bouse  of  God,  where  food 
may  be  received  for  the  nourishment  of  the  souls  of  pastor 
and  people. 

(f.)  It  should  not  be  a  merely  human  utterance,  used  as 
if  it  were  the  word  of  God.  "  All  that  lies  between  tbe 
covers  of  the  Bible  is  not  divine."  It  is  not  all  a  word  or 
speech  of  God  himself,  since  a  large  portibn  of  the  Bible 
is  the  record  of  human  sayings  and  doings.     The  record 

'  Mrs.  Oliphant's  Life  of  Irving.  / 


106  PREACHING. 

may  be  divinely  guided  and  preserved,  while  the  text  itself 
is  but  the  expression  of  human  imperfection  and  sin.  It 
may  be  used  as  a  text  in  its  true  connections,  as  an  impor- 
tant fact  of  human  history,  as  something  essentially  related 
to  God's  government  and  the  redemption  of  men,  but  not  as 
an  expression  of  the  mind  of  God.  There  are  texts  spoken 
by  angels,  men,  and  devils,  by  ignorant  men,  by  wicked 
men  and  opposers,  by  the  prince  of  evil  himself.  These 
may  be  usefuU}'-  employed  to  illustrate  the  workings  of  the 
wicked  heart,  and  also  as  forcible  indirect  arguments  ;  thus 
if  even  demoniacs,  for  example,  acknowledge  the  truth  and 
divine  nature  of  Jesus,  how  much  more  should  we  ! 

We  surely  should  never  employ  a  text  expressing  a  ivrong 
sentiment,  as  if  it  were  authoritative,  simply  because  it 
stands  in  the  Bil)le.  The  book  of  Ecdesiastes  is,  on  this 
account,  peculiarly  difficult  to  be  handled ;  and  a  right  or 
wrong  theory  of  this  book  makes  all  imaginable  difference 
in  the  authority  of  many  of  its  passages  —  whether  they 
are  considered  to  be  truly  inspired  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
or  are  the  utterances  of  the  disappointed  and  corrupt  human 
heart  of  Solomon,  or  of  some  writer  of  the  splendid  but  mor- 
ally fallen  Solomonic  epoch.  Many  a  false  doctrinal  argu- 
ment, or  perverse  opinion,  has  been  bolstered  up  by  texts 
which,  if  studied  in  all  their  bearings,  would  lead  to  pre- 
cisely opposite  conclusions.  There  are,  it  is  true,  texts 
which  are  the  spontaneous  words  of  men,  and  which  are, 
nevertheless,  inspired  by  the  Holy  Spirit ;  they  flow  from 
the  teachings  of  God's  law  and  spirit.  Such  is  the  passage 
in  Gen.  32  :  10,  where  Jacob  says,  "/am  not  wortliy  of  the 
least  of  oM  the  mercies,  and  of  all  the  truth,  which  thou  hast 
showed  unto  thy  servant. ^^  Most  of  the  words  of  Job  and 
of  Daniel  (though  not  all)  are  of  the  same  character;  they 
are  "the  reflection  of  the  word  of  God  in  the  spirit  of 
man."^     These,  of  course,  constitute  legitimate  texts,  as 

1  Hagenbach. 


§  11.       THE    TEXT.  107 

do  also  those  words  where  the  Spirit  of  God  forces  the 
truth,  as  it  were,  from  irreligious  or  wicked  men,  as  in 
the  case  of  Balaam,  and  of  Pilate,  and  of  the  Eoman  cen- 
turion at  the  sepulchre  ;  and  the  utterances  of  Job's  friends, 
although  condemned  by  God  in  the  gross,  are,  in  the  de- 
tail, good. 

2.   The  text  should  be  fitted  for  edification. 

In  its  adaptation  to  the  audience,  time,  and  occasion,  it 
should  be  suited  to  the  high  purposes  of  sacred  instruction. 

(a.)  It  should  he  jfiain  and  perspicuous.  If  easily  under- 
stood, and  naturally  suggestive  of  the  subject,  this  helps 
the  common  mind  to  comprehend  and  remember  it ;  and  it 
also  removes  the  temptation  from  the  preacher  to  be  pedan- 
tic and  obscure ;  he  is  led  by  it  to  a  solid  and  earnest  style 
of  discourse.  But  there  are  exceptions  to  this  choice  of 
plain  texts.  An  obscure  text  may  sometimes  be  advanta- 
geous. Its  treatment  assists  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
Bible  to  the  common  mind ;  and  it  leads  to  an  expository 
style  of  discourse.  The  very  announcement  of  such  a  text 
in  itself  awakens  attention  ;  for  men  like  to  see  a  hard  knot 
untied.  It  is  a  gi-eat  mental  refreshment  and  excitement 
to  the  pious  mind  to  obtain  a  new  idea  from  God's  word ; 
and  all  men  love  to  have  mysteries  unfolded.  But  the 
very  obscure  and  difficult  passages,  such,  for  example,  as 
Paul's  meaning  in  Rom.  7  :  9-25,  or  Christ's  preaching  to 
"the  spirits  in  prison,"  or  the  passage  in  2  Pet.  1  :  20,  21, 
or  "  God's  hardening  Pharaoh's  heart,"  should  not  be  too 
frequently  taken,  nor  as  a  general  rule ;  otherwise  a  curi- 
ous, rather  than  trustful,  spirit  will  be  nourished  in  the 
congregation. 

And  as  another  caution,  it  is  not  best  to  take  a  difficult 
passage  unless  we  are  sure  we  can  go  some  way  toward 
clearing  up  its  difficulties,  instead  of  increasing  them ; 
thus  we  should  not  take  such  a  text  when  pressed  for  time, 
or  when  we  wish  to  talk  in  a  direct,  practical  manner.  In 
a  word,  he  who  is  in  earnest  to  convert  the  souls  of  his 


108  PREACHING. 

people  will  be  most  apt  to  take  for  texts  those  plain,  impor- 
tant passages  which  contain  saving  truth  expressed  in  the 
most  simple  and  solid  form,  comprehending  in  clear  propo- 
sitions the  great  truths  of  the  gospel  —  the  incarnation,  the 
atonement,  faith,  love,  repentance,  the  Christian  life,  the 
judgment,  eternal  life. 

(6.)  It  should  be  dignified,  as  opjoosed  to  tokat  is  odd.  In 
so  vast  and  various  a  book  as  the  Bible, — a  world  in  itself, — 
there  are  passages  treating  simply  and  freely  of  human  life, 
which  are  to  be  taken  in  their  right  historical  connections, 
and  with  proper  mental  preparation ;  but  which,  suddenly 
announced  from  so  solemn  a  place  as  the  pulpit,  would  have 
a  startling  elSect,  tending  to  produce  irreverence.  The  dig- 
nity of  the  text  may  be  violated,  (1.)  By  a  text  which  ex- 
presses no  moral  or  religious  idea;  as  if  one  should  take 
the  passage  concerning  the  apostle  Paul,  "Having  shorn  his 
head  in  Cenchrea ; "  or  the  words  of  the  Saviour,  "Loose 
the  colt,  and  bring  him  here."  (2.)  By  a  text  which  sug- 
gests ludicrous  associations.  These  words  have  been  actu- 
ally preached  upon :  Cant.  5:3;  "I  have  put  off  my  coat; 
how  shall  I  put  it  on  ?  "  "Moab  is  my  wash-pot."  "Ephra- 
im  is  a  cake  unturned."  (3.)  By  a  text  not  adajJted  to  mod- 
ern or  occidental  ideas  of  modesty.^  There  may  be  too 
great  a  fear  on  the  part  of  the  preacher  of  offending  a 
sickly  fastidiousness,  which,  by  and  by,  may  grow  so  ex- 
travagant that  it  cannot  even  bear  the  truth  that  our  Lord 
was  conceived  and  born  of  a  woman ;  or  that  could  not 
repeat  many  of  his  own  words  drawn  from  common  things. 
To  the  pure  all  things  are  pure ;  but,  notwithstanding  this, 
it  is  still  true  that  oriental  and  occidental  ideas  of  delicacy 
differ ;  and  many  of  our  words  and  customs  would  be  highly 
indelicate  to  oriental  minds.  The  ideas  of  different  ages 
also  greatly  differ  in  respect  to  these  things,  and  a  due 
regard  should  be  had  to  that  fact.     The  soberness  of  the 


-&' 


'  Professor  Phelps. 


§  11.      THE   TEXT.  109 

text  should  be  observed,  in  order,  if  nothing  else,  to  main- 
tain respect  and  reverence  for  the  word  of  God.  (4.)  By 
a  'merely  ingenious  and  wittily -a2:)2)lied  text.  An  old  divine 
of  the  time  of  James  I.  of  England  and  VI.  of  Scotland, 
preached  before  that  unstable  monarch  upon  the  words  in 
James  1  :  6  — "  Waver  not."  This  text  was  surely  apt 
enough  and  bold  enough  to  be  admissible ;  but  the  fol- 
lowing use  of  a  passage  in  Gen.  48  :  13,  14  was  much 
too  ingenious.  Jacob,  in  his  blessing  of  Manasseh,  laid 
his  right  hand  upon  him,  crossed  over  his  left ;  and  the 
theme  drawn  from  this  was,  "  We  derive  our  blessings 
under  the  cross."  Sometimes,  however,  there  is  a  piquancy 
and  pertinency  in  the  text  which  is  simply  felicitous,  and 
yet  not  undignified ;  thus  Edward  Irving's  first  sermon  in 
London  was  upon  the  text,  "jTAere/bre  came  I  unto  you 
without  gainsaying^  as  soon  as  I  was  sent  for.  I  ask  you, 
therefore,  for  what  intent  you  have  sent  for  me." 

(c.)  It  should  be  foesh.  That  is  to  say,  as  a  general 
rule,  it  is  well  not  to  take  too  hackneyed  a  text ;  for  a  fresh 
text  creates  interest"  in  the  writer's  own  mind,  and  in  the 
minds  of  his  hearers  ;  it  is  turning  over  a  fresh  leaf  in  the 
Bible  ;  it  promotes  a  broader  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  ; 
it  is  bringing  out  of  the  divine  treasures  "  things  new  and 
old."  Some  preachers  seem  to  think  that  the}''  must  in  no 
case  depart  from  the  use  of  immemorial  texts  upon  imme- 
morial subjects ;  whereas  other  texts,  a  little  out  of  the 
common,  would  throw  new  light  upon  the  subject.  This, 
however,  should  not  deter  one  from  employing  those  famil- 
iar texts  which  have  the  merit  of  greater  appropriateness, 
and  which  seem  to  be  peculiarly  consecrated  to  particular 
themes  ;  such,  for  example,  as  some  of  the  words  of  Christ, 
which  have  a  peculiar  weight  and  sanction  as  coming  directly 
from  his  mouth.  "I^e  must  be  born  again"  is  and  will  ever 
be  the  great  standard  text  upon  the  subject  of  regeneration  ; 
and  yet  there  are  other  fruitful  texts  upon  this  fundamental 
theme.  There  are,  indeed,  a  few  precious,  familiar  texts 
10 


110  PKE  ACHING. 

which  a  minister  should  most  certainly  preach  upon,  and 
repeatedly  preach  upon  ;  for,  though  so  familiar,  when  treat- 
ed with  earnestness  they  never  fail  of  having  a  powerful 
efl'ect ;  and,  like  the  green  earth,  or  the  sun,  or  the  stars, 
that  we  see  every  day,  because  they  are  so  great,  so  good, 
so  deep,  so  divine,  they  are  ever  fresh. 

Searching  out  novel  texts  is  not  what  is  meant  by  employ- 
ing fresh  texts ;  for  fresh  texts  are  those  which,  as  soon  as 
uttered,  suggest  original  reading  and  study  of  the  Bible,  as 
if  the  preacher  had  gone  farther  and  deeper  into  the  myste- 
ries of  the  word,  and  found  new  and  rare  words  of  divine 
truth.  The  stereotyped  use  of  certain  texts  in  preaching — 
setting  aside  those  few  familiar  texts  that  stand  out  like 
mountains  that  cannot  be  hid  —  may  be  explained  by  the 
fact,  that  great  preachers  who  have  gone  before  have  made 
certain  texts  familiar  and  popular  by  pi'eaching  great  sermons 
upon  them,  by  dwelling  upon  these  passages  as  their  favor- 
ites, as  their  theological  proof-texts ;  and  less  original 
minds  of  their  own  denominations  and  theological  opinions 
have  concluded  that  there  were  no  texts  in  the  Bible  other 
than  these.  How  different  was  a  mind  like  that  of  Leigh- 
ton,  that  found  food  in  every  part  of  the  word  of  God  ! 

(cZ.)  It  should  be  as  im^iersonal  as  possible^  That  is, 
any  marked  personality  in  the  text  that  directs  thought  to 
the  speaker,  or  to  any  particular  person  or  persons  among 
his  hearers,  is  to  be  avoided  ;  and.  this  has  been,  oddly 
enough,  illustrated  in  the  history  of  preaching.  Dr.  Strong, 
preaching  to  a  congregation  in  which  there  was  a  contro- 
versy raging,  took  for  his  text,  "/  hea7^  there  be  conten- 
tions among  you;  I  partly  believe  it;"  and  it  is  related  of 
Wetsteiu,  the  distinguished  German  preacher,  that,  after 
having  had  an  annoying  dispute  with  a  man  named  Alex- 
ander, he  preached  upon  the  text,  '^Alexander  the  copper- 
smith  did  me  much   injury."     Yet  there  may  be  special 

'  Professor  Phelps. 


§  11.       THE    TEXT.  Ill 

occasions  —  funeral  occasions  —  when  a  personal  text  is  not 
only  appropriate,  but  singularly  impressive  and  affecting; 
as,  for  instance,  a  most  touching  funeral  sermon  upon  the 
character  of  an  aged  deacon  noted  far  and  wide  for  his  prim- 
itive piety  and  livel}'^  strength  of  religious  character,  was 
preached  from  the  text,  "  An  old  discij)le." 

(e.)  It  shoidd,  as  a  general  ride,  he  didactic.  That  is, 
it  should  be  a  text  capable  of  analj'^sis,  of  expansion,  of 
thoughtful  treatment,  in  opposition  to  a  highly  imaginative, 
poetical,  or  impassioned  text.  Such  an  impassioned  text 
might  be  sometimes  effective ;  but  it  demands  a  peculiar 
state  of  feeling  in  preacher  and  audience,  and  requires  an 
equally  fervid  introduction  and  continuously  impassioned 
treatment.  It  also  excites  undue  expectation  in  the  audi- 
ence, and  strings  up  a  sermon  to  too  high  a  pitch.  A  text, 
therefore,  which  contains  truth  in  a  suggestive  form,  is  bet- 
ter than  one  which  gives  full  expression  to  the  feeling  of 
the  truth  suggested ;  for  there  is  something  undeveloped  in 
the  first,  something  that  requires  an  act  of  reflection  to 
awaken  feeling,  and  it  does  not  start  from  too  high  a  point, 
thus  aiding  in  the  gradual  development  of  the  sermon.  It 
is  better  to  have  feeling  flow  naturally  from  the  actual  treat- 
ment of  a  text,  than  to  require  it  to  flow  at  once  on  the  mere 
pronouncing  of  the  text.  The  preacher  should  not,  there- 
fore, acquire  the  habit  of  depending  upon  sensational,  or  what 
may  be  called  ambitious  texts.  Yet,  in  a  time  when  spirit- 
ual indiflerence  broods  like  a  death-pall  over  his  congrega- 
tion, it  might  be  impressive  for  a  minister  to  pour  out  his 
feelings  in  a  vehement,  ejaculatory  text,  which  was  uttered 
originally  at  a  similar  time  of  religious  apathy  and  death : 
''Thine  altars,  0  Lord  of  hosts,  my  King  and  my  God  I" 

Sometimes,  also,  a  brilliant  text  gives  power  and  glory  to 
a  sermon,  when  it  is  carried  out,  as  are  some  of  Melville's 
sermons,  in  the  same  striking  and  exalted  strain.  Such  a 
text  at  once  raises  the  audience  into  a  higher  sphere,  and 
bears  their  thoughts  beyond  this  world  ;  but  it  requires  deep 


112    .  PREACHING. 

feeling,  powerful  imagination,  and  bold  tlioiiglit  inspired  by 
bold  faith,  to  treat  such  texts  successfully. 

3.   T]ie  text  should  have  true  relations  to  the  subject. 

The  text  should  be  vitally  one  and  the  same  with  the 
subject. 

(a.)  It  should  have  pertinency.  This  means  that  there 
should  be  an  organic,  and  not  a  merel}''  mechanical,  con- 
nection between  the  text  and  the  sermon ;  that  the  sermon 
should  grow  from  the  text  like  a  living  plant  from  its  root. 
The  pertinency  of  the  text  may  be  violated,  (1.)  Wlien  the 
text  does  not  contain  the  subject  of  the  sermon.  Thus  the 
text  may  refer  to  an  entirely  diiferent  truth,  or  class  of 
truths,  from  that  treated  of  in  the  sermon.  1  Cor.  11  :  34, 
^'  If  any  man  hunger^  let  him  eat  at  home;''''  subject,  "Home 
and  Home  Piety."  Is.  40:  1,  "Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye 
my  people;"  subject,  "A  comfortable  religion  not  to  be 
sought  for  by  Christians."  It  is  the  habit  of  some  preachers 
to  touch  the  text  so  lightly,  to  avoid  it  so  scrupulously,  to 
display  one's  independence  in  talking  of  everything  but 
the  text,  and  to  look  upon  this  fastidious  avoidance  of  the 
text  as  a  matter  of  good  taste  (as,  indeed,  it  is  in  essay- 
writing,  where  one  strives  to  convey  an  idea  indirectly,  and 
where  philosophy,  instead  of  the  gospel,  is  often  preached), 
that  Cowper's  words  are  brought  to  mind  :  — 

"  How  oft,  when  Paul  has  served  us  with  a  text, 
Has  Epictetus,  Plato,  TuUy  preached !  " 

(2.)  When  the  text  has  not  the  spirit  of  the  sermon.  Thus 
the  sermon  may  be  imaginative  and  poetical,  when  the  text 
is  didactic ;  or  it  may  be  logical  and  argumentative,  when 
the  text  is  emotional  and  pathetic ;  whereas  the  text  should 
give  the  key-note  to  the  sermon. 

(6.)  It  should  have  uirectness.  A  direct  treatment  and 
application  evidently  secure  more  of  divine  authority,  and 
tend  more  certainly  to  edification. 

The  question  arises  here,  May  we  employ  an  accommo- 


§    11.       THE    TEXT.  113 

dated  text?  An  accommodated  text  has  been  defined  as 
"  one  which  is  applied  to  a  subject  resembling  that  in  the 
text,  but  yet  entirely  distinct  from  it."^  Being  thus  chosen, 
not  on  the  principle  of  identity,  but  of  resemblance  or  simi- 
larity only,  an  accommodated  text,  though  sometimes  allow- 
able, and  even  necessary,  should  be  very  sparingly  used, 
and  never  from  resemblance  of  mere  sound  of  words,  or  any 
fanciful  resemb'lance,  but  only  from  a  similarity  of  ideas, 
or  truths.  "  Speah  unto  the  children  of  Israel  that  they  go 
forward  "  may  be  justly  applied  to  Christian  sanctification 
amid  difficulties,  or  to  Christian  activity  in  discouraging 
circumstances. 

Such  an  accommodated  text,  when  it  suggests  a  natural 
and  sensible  resemblance  of  ideas,  without  anything  strained, 
or  frivolous,  or  fanciful,  and  is  at  the  same  time  itself  found- 
ed upon  some  deep  principle  of  truth,  applied  only  to  dif- 
ferent circumstances,  is  perfectly  justifiable.  Thus  "  Christ 
stilling  the  storm  "  is  well  applied  to  his  peace-giving  power 
in  spiritual  things,  in  stilling  the  storm  of  the  wicked  and 
passionate  heart ;  for  outer  things  may  typify  inward  feel- 
ings. "  Simon  bearing  the  cross  "  is  a  proper  type  of  the 
Christian  bearing  the  cross  after  Christ ;  in  fact,  the  princi- 
ple of  humble  obedience  is  identically  the  same  in  both  ac- 
tions. But  this  typical  use  of  texts  may  be  carried  too  far ; 
thus  Hagenbach  mentions  a  German  preacher's  drawina^  from 
the  words  of  the  Saviour  on  the  cross,  ^^  I  thirst  "  the  theme 
that  "  Christ  thirsted  for  the  salvation  of  men."  It  is  one 
thing  to  take  an  outw^ard  type  as  obviously  suggesting  an 
inward  truth,  and  another  thing  deliberately  to  turn  the  text 
to  a  sense  entirely  diflferent  from  what  it  plainly  will  bear. 
The  allegorical  use  of  texts  in  the  past,  especially  by  the 
older  Puritan  divines,  among  them  the  peerless  John  Bunyan 
himself,  is  an  illustration  of  this.  And  to  what  absurdities 
has  it  not  sometimes  led  !     Thus  the  two  pennies  given  by 

'  Professor  Phelps. 

10* 


114  PREACHING. 

the  Good  Samaritan  have  been  turned  hi  to  the  two  sacraments 
of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper !  A  preacher  who  deals 
in  allegorical  preaching,  or  in  such  a  fanciful  torturing  of  the 
plain  meaning  of  texts,  not  only  shows  weakness,  but  is  apt 
to  lead  himself  and  others  into  error,  mysticism,  and  obscu- 
rity, as  did  Origeu,  with  all  his  profound  intellect  and  piety. 

Yet  the  use  of  this  principle  of  accommodation  in  texts 
cannot  be  entirely  given  up ;  for  if  we  give  it  up,  we  should 
lose  much  that  is  interesting  to  the  mind  in  the  inward  and 
outward  resemblances  of  truth,  and  in  the  matter  of  actual 
instruction.  Language,  for  example,  which  is  addressed  to 
the  apostles,  may,  in  most  instances,  be  legitimately  accom- 
modated to  apply  to  all  Christians.  But  in  using  accommo- 
dated texts,  the  original  significance  of  the  text  should  not 
be  lost  sight  of;  it  should  be  fairly  applied,  and  it  should 
be  always  clearly  stated  in  some  way,  that  it  is  an  accom- 
modated use. 

But  to  the  employment  of  what  is  called  motto  texts, 
we  are  decidedly  opposed.  They  are  used  merely  as  a 
matter  of  form,  in  order  that  there  may  be  a  text  to  stand 
at  the  head  of  the  sermon ;  but  they  have  no  further  shaping 
influence  on  the  subject,  or  on  the  mode  of  treating  it. 
That  is  using  the  word  of  God  unworthily,  and  the  "  text " 
becomes  a  "  pretext." 

(c.)  It  should  have  correctness.  That  is,  it  should  be 
employed  according  to  the  truth, — according  to  the  true 
intention  of  the  author,  be  he  God  or  man ;  and  it  should 
be  applied  to  a  subject  which  is  the  true  one  taught  by  it, 
and  not  to  any  other  subject.  We  do  not  refer  now  alto- 
gether to  the  correctness  of  the  verbal  interpretation  of  the 
text,  to  which  reference  has  been  made ;  but  more  to  the 
substance  of  the  text  itself,  since  truth  is  better  than  false- 
hood, and  even  truth  cannot  be  helped  by  untrue  argu- 
ments ;  and  if  certain  texts  have  been  used  from  time  imme- 
morial as  proof-texts  of  any  particular  subject,  which  are 
not  so  in  fact,  it  is,  on  a  broader  view  of  truth,  right  to  dis- 


§    11.       THE    TEXT.  115 

use  them  for  such  a  purpose,  and  to  give  them  their  true 
meaning ;  for  it  is  not  the  number  of  proof-texts  that  estab- 
lishes a  truth,  but  the  clearness  and  authority  of  one  text ; 
and  if  many  texts  may  be  used  by  way  of  illustration,  they 
should  not  be  employed  as  proof,  and  much  less  as  contain- 
ing the  true  substance  of  a  particular  doctrine  or  subject. 
This  opens  an  interesting  field  of  discussion  iu  regard  to  the 
external  and  internal  sense  of  Scripture  and  the  just  limita- 
tions of  biblical  truth ;  which  questions,  however,  belong 
more  properly  to  the  department  of  Interpretation,  and  we 
cannot  here  discuss  them. 

The  simple  principle  now  before  us  is,  that  the  text 
should  be  correctly  employed  in  its  relation  to  the  subject; 
that  the  real  contents  of  the  subject  should  be  found  in  it, 
though  it  may  be  in  the  simplest  synthetical  form  ;  it  should 
not  be  wrested  from  its  true  meaning,  force,  and  relations ; 
and  thus  an  honest  and  careful  study  of  the  context  is  essen- 
tial. One  can  often  arrive  at  the  truth  of  a  text  only  from 
a  study  of  the  w^hole  passage,  or  chapter,  or  even  book,  in 
which  it  is  contained,  and  the  practice  of  using  individual 
texts,  without  consulting  them  in  the  original,  is  always  to 
be  deprecated.  A  text  should  never  be  taken  merely  from 
memory,  without  carefully  consulting  the  passage  iu  the 
original  Hebrew  or  Greek. 

The  principle  is  sometimes  laid  down  that  a  text  should 
be  interpreted  to  mean  all  that  it  can  possibly  be  made  to 
mean,  without  regard  to  the  limitations  of  the  context;  but 
preachers,  we  think,  will  hereafter  be  called  to  a  stricter 
account  iu  their  use  of  texts ;  they  will  be  required  to  be 
more  candid  and  true,  and  their  preaching  will  gain  propor- 
tionally in  point  and  power.  "  Bonus  textuarius  est  bonus 
theologus.''^ 

(d.)  It  should  have  fruitfulness.  The  Bible  is  full  of 
germinal  texts  capable  of  almost  infinite  development;  and 
yet  every  word  and  sentence  in  the  Bible  which  seem  to 
convey  such  fruitful  ideas,  do  not  always  do  so.     Preachers 


116  PREACHING. 

are  sometimes  apt  to  be  caught  by  the  appearance  of  a  pas- 
sage, rather  than  by  the  substance  of  truth  which  it  contains  ; 
for  a  text  often  appears  very  suggestive  ;  it  seems  to  open  a 
most  fruitful  subject  of  thought ;  whereas  it  may  be  but  an 
incidental  or  accidental  expression,  and  by  no  means  the  best 
and  fullest  manifestation  of  the  truth.  Vinet  (Homiletics, 
p.  137)  thus  describes  a  fruitful  text:  "I  call  a  text  fruitful 
which,  without  foreign  additions,  without  the  aid  of  minute 
details,  without  discussion,  furnishes,  when  reduced  to  its 
just  meaning,  matter  for  a  development  interesting  in  all 
its  parts,  and  which  leaves  with  us  an  important  result." 

"We  close  this  topic  with  a  few  practical  suggestions. 

1.  The  text  should  have  unity  in  itself.  It  is  not  best, 
as  a  rule,  to  employ  two  or  more  texts  from  different  parts 
of  the  Bible ;  it  is  better  to  have  but  one  text,  one  pas- 
sage of  Scripture,  and  that,  whether  long  or  short,  should 
cont^ain  one  subject,  and  be  complete  in  itself. 

The  advice  is  commonly  given  that  the  text  should  be 
short,  for  a  short  text  is  better  remembered.  Brief,  con- 
densed, penetrating  texts  stick  in  the  memory  like  nails 
fastened  by  the  masters  of  assemblies.  And  yet  texts  may 
be  too  brief;  they  may  not  contain  a  complete  subject; 
the}''  may  be  mere  fragments  of  a  truth  or  of  a  sentence. 
The  better  rule  is,  that  the  text  should  contain  one  com- 
plete truth  or  idea,  and  then  it  may  be  very  brief.  What 
a  world  of  meaning  is  in  that  shortest  text  of  the  Bible, 
"  Jesus  we'pt "  ! 

It  is  wholly  unjustifiable  to  take  a  mere  portion  or  clause 
of  a  verse,  even  if  it  contains  good  sense  in  itself,  but 
"which,  by  thus  dismembering  it  from  the  rest,  does  not 
give  the  real  or  full  sense  intended  to  be  conveyed  by  the 
whole  verse — such  a  text,  for  instance,  as  Heb.  4  :  2,  ^'^ But 
ike  word  'preached  did  not  profit  them;''''  without  adding 
the  very  important  clause,  "no<  being  mixed  with  faith  in 
them  that  heard  it.'''    The  longer  the  passage,  however,  that 


§  11.       THE   TEXT.  117 

we  may  conveniently  employ  for  a  text,  without  violating 
the  law  of  unity,  the  more  of  the  actual  body  of  Scripture 
we  bring  before  the  people,  and  the  nearer  do  we  come, 
undoubtedly,  to  the  primitive  style  of  preaching. 

2.  The  text  should  he  chosen  before  the  subject.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  of  this,  as  a  general  rule ;  for  this  seems 
to  honor  the  word  of  God  —  that  the  subject  should  spring 
from  it,  rather  than  that  it  should  be  fitted  to  the  subject. 
This  rule  is  continually  violated  by  those  who  preach  alto- 
gether topically.  Dr.  Emmons  even  recommended  the 
choosing  of  a  subject  before  a  text ;  and  there  may  be  ex- 
ceptional cases ;  as,  for  instance,  when  a  subject  which  has 
possessed  the  mind  has  sprung  up  without  connection  with 
any  particular  text ;  yet,  when  an  appropriate  text  is  found 
for  such  a  subject,  it  will  often  receive  new  light  and  rich- 
ness from  the  discussion  of  the  text  itself. 

3.  The  text  should  be  announced  first  of  all.  It  is  the 
European  custom  to  preface  the  text  with  some  remarks, 
sometimes  with  a  little  sermon,  on  the  general  subject  of 
praise,  or  on  the  necessity  of  God's  blessing  the  word  :  our 
custom  of  announcing  the  text  first  is,  however,  we  think, 
the  best. 

4.  Tlie  text  should  be  pronounced  clearly^  with  some  sim- 
ple prefatory  remarh^  introducing  it  easily.  All  things 
should  be  in  readiness,  so  that  there  may  be  no  hasti- 
ness or  business-like  air  at  the  commencement  of  the  dis- 
course. Even  as  the  pulpit  itself  should  be  entered  with 
simple  dignity  and  seriousness,  so  the  opening  services 
should  be  simple,  modest,  serious,  yet  without  dulness  or 
gloomy  gravity.  There  should  be  no  act  or  gesture  that 
draws  the  attention  of  the  audience  to  the  speaker ;  but 
the  thought  of  God  and  the  word  of  God  should  be  the 
first  impression. 

It  is  well  to  mention  distinctly  the  chapter  and  verse  before 
the  words  of  the  text ;  for  the  habit  of  consulting  the  Bible, 
and  following  the  preacher  in  the  Bible,  on  the  part  of  the 


118  PEE  ACHING. 

congregation,  is  certainly  one  to  be  encouraged.  If  the  text 
is  a  brief  one,  it  is  well  to  read  it  twice ;  if  a  longer  one, 
it  may  be  repeated  in  some  way  in  the  introduction :  at  all 
events,  the  audience  should  hear  and  understand  distinctly 
what  the  text  is,  or  the  effect  of  the  whole  discourse  is 
greatly  impaired,  perhaps  lost.  The  text  should  be  read 
in  a  slow  and  clear  voice,  but  not  loud,  and  perhaps  a  little 
more  emphatically  the  second  time  than  the  first. 

§  12.    The  Introduction. 

The  introduction  to  a  discourse  is  naturally  compared  to 
the  door,  or  vestibule,  of  a  house  :  it  oi3ens  to  what  the 
house  contains.  The  comparison  might  be  carried  still 
further ;  for  since  the  door  of  the  house  should  accord 
with  the  style  and  character  of  the  house  itself,  and  one 
would  not  put  a  Grecian  portico  on  a  Gothic  house,  so  the 
introduction  should  harmonize  with  the  subject  of  the  dis- 
course, and  not  strike  the  mind  with  incongruity;  and  as 
the  door  ought  not  to  be  too  large  for  the  house,  neither 
should  the  introduction  be  so  for  the  sermon.  Neither  should 
the  doorway  be  mean  and  narrow,  nor  the  introduction  fail 
of  an  air  of  freedom  and  simple  elegance ;  and  as  the  door 
is  generally  placed  in  the  centre  of  the  building,  in  like 
manner  the  introduction  strikes  the  central  thought  and 
purpose  of  the  sermon. 

In  the  matter  of  the  introduction,  it  is  well  to  study  the 
best  models,  not  only  of  the  introductions  of  orations  and 
sermons,  but  of  all  true  literary  works;  for  every  work 
addressed  to  the  human  mind  must  have  an  intelligent  and 
fit  beginning,  which  suggests  its  object  and  denotes  its 
leading  idea.  The  brief  but  impressive  introductions  of 
all  the  books  of  the  Bible  show  that  their  authors,  writing 
under  the  impulse  of  inspiration,  did  not  disdain  this  rational 
method  of  making  their  objects  known,  and  of  interesting 
those  whom  they  addressed.     The  short  introductions  of 


§  12.       THE   INTRODUCTION.  119 

the  "Iliad,"  the  "iEiieicl,"  the  "Paradise  Lost,"  the  "Divina 
Commedia"  of  Daute,  the  "Faerie  Queene,"  and  the  "Jeru- 
salem Delivered,"  short  as  they  are,  may  have  cost  their 
authors  more  labor  than  any  other  part  of  their  poems,  and 
may  have  been  the  last  finished ;  for  they  gathered  up  all 
the  rays  of  light  into  one  beam,  they  smote  the  human 
mind  with  a  new  thought  and  theme. 

Although  it  is  well  for  a  preacher  to  study  good  models 
of  introductions  in  the  works  of  great  writers,  and  especially 
in  the  orations  and  discourses  of  the  best  orators,  it  is  bet- 
ter to  take  the  best  preachers  for  our  models. 

Dr.  SoutJi's  introductions  are  characteristic,  and  may  be 
described  by  the  word  commanding ;  for  they  immediately 
arrest  attention,  and  strike  the  key-note  of  the  sermon  with 
a  ringing  blow,  as  much  as  to  say,  "Listen,  ye  people,  to 
what  I  have  to  say  on  this  subject,  for  I  have  that  to  say 
which  is  important."  There  is  no  frippery,  or  fancy,  or 
fine  writing,  but  a  plain  common  sense,  which  appeals  at 
once  to  the  masculine  understanding,  and  leads  the  hearer 
to  say,  "  At  all  events,  here  is  a  man  who  has  begun  to 
speak ;  he  is  worth  listening  to,  even  if  I  cannot  agree 
with  him."  South's  introductions  are  not  so  long  as  to 
lead  the  mind  away  from  the  object  set  before  him,  or  from 
the  work  laid  out  in  the  text  itself — which  he  explains 
and  develops  with  great  care. 

Dr.  Emmons's  introductions  are  also,  in  some  respects, 
models  of  excellence,  and  possess  the  same  characteristics 
of  common  sense,  and  the  union  of  strong  thought  with 
simple  expression.  They  are  judicious  introductions  ;  they 
seem  perfectly  pertinent  to  the  subject,  while  at  the  same 
time  they  are  sagacious,  and  they  awaken  curiosity.  They 
are  like  a  Doric  porch — very  plain  and  unornamented,  but 
with  a  certain  pleasing,  attractive  majesty. 

Saurin^s  introductions  are  particularly  happy,  and  some- 
times they  are  exceedingly  bold  and  striking.  They  make  it 
difficult  to  carry  on  and  out  the  first  impressions  produced. 


120  PREACHING. 

and  which  it  would  not  be  well  for  any  less  brilliant  and 
vigorous  preacher  to  imitate. 

Of  contemporaneous  and  younger  preachers,  the  sermons 
of  F.  W.  Robertson  deserve  to  be  studied  for  their  artistic 
excellence.  Some  of  his  introductions  consist  of  but  six  or 
seven  lines ;  others  seem  to  lead  on  impercei3tibly,  without 
indicating  where  they  leave  oflf,  into  the  heart  of  the  ser- 
mon ;  but  in  all  of  them,  while  there  is  no  display,  there  is, 
at  the  outset,  a  fresh  turn  given  to  the  subject,  a  new  and 
awakenins:  train  of  thouo;ht  started.  Robertson's  introduc- 
tions  give  the  idea  of  a  steel  forceps  seizing  upon  an  object 
with  tenacious  grasp,  and  holding  it  up  with  perfect  ease 
and  power,  turning  it  round,  and  looking  it  through,  and 
then  thrusting  it  into  the  glowing  fire  of  thought,  and  weld- 
ing it  with  the  hammer  of  an  earnest  purpose  :  his  intro- 
duction seems  to  say,  "  I  have  thought  this  subject  through  ; 
I  have  gone  to  the  heart  of  it ;  I  intend  to  treat  it  in  my 
own  way,  and  out  of  my  own  head  ;  "  and  then  the  preacher 
proceeds  to  lay  the  subject  open,  with  the  same  free  and 
confident  power.  There  is  no  parading  of  theological  or 
philological  pedantry  ;  he  is  evidently  not  talking  to  scholars 
or  philosophers,  but  he  is  talking  to  men  —  to  thinking 
and  feeling  men.  Perhaps  the  epithet  which  would  best 
characterize  his  introductions  is,  manly;  just  like  the 
greeting  of  one  genuine  man  to  another,  with  no  servility 
and  no  concealment,  and  yet  with  a  certain  thoughtful- 
ness  and  art.  The  introduction  to  the  sermon  on  "Caia- 
phas'  View  of  a  Vicarious  Atonement"  (First  Series, 
p.  164),  is  a  masterpiece  of  elaborate  and  subtile  thought, 
as  preparing  the  way  for  a  remarkable  and  original  view 
of  the  atonement ;  but  generally  he  begins  with  a  simple, 
strong,  and  interesting  train  of  thought,  without  a  shade 
of  learned  afiectation,  or  even  of  mock  rhetoric;  as,  for 
instance,  in  the  sermon  on  "  Worldliness  "  (Second  Series, 
p.  173),  from  the  text  1  John  11  :  15-17.  This  introduction, 
while  it  is  simple  and  easy  to  comprehend,  yet  contains 


§  12.       THE   mTEODUCTION.  121 

an  extremely  interesting  and  profound  question,  to  the 
solution  of  Avliich  the  mind  of  the  hearer  is  excited  and 
pushed  on.  The  somewhat  extended  introduction  to  the 
sermon  on  "Realizing  the  Second  Advent"  (First  Series, 
p.  180)  is  a  fine  example  of  the  plain,  strong,  unpedantic, 
and  yet  fresh  and  original  way  in  which  this  preacher  takes 
up  a  theme ;  it  is  the  highest  art  of  a  highly-cultured  and 
philosophic  mind,  determined  to  be  simple,  determined  to 
be  true  and  practical,  and  to  be  understood  by  all. 

Robertson's  introductions  are,  in  fact,  unconscious  exhi- 
bitions of  the  man  himself,  of  his  earnest,  penetrating,  and, 
as  it  were,  military  mind,  that  surveys  the  field  at  a  glance,  « 
and  at  once  seizes  upon  the  most  advantageous  positions  to 
bring  his  forces  into  action.  He  stands  before  us  at  the 
instant  he  begins  to  speak,  an  able  and  sincere  teacher,  who 
must  be  attended  to ;  he  wins,  in  his  very  introduction,  our 
respect  for  himself,  if  not  our  convictions  of  the  truth  of 
what  he  says ;  and  the  hearer  wishes  to  hear  such  a  man 
through,  which  is  a  great  point  gained.  That  is,  perhaps, 
the  great  end  of  the  introduction,  which  should  excite  a 
strong  and  healthy  feeling  of  expectation  for  what  is  to 
follow  it. 

What  is  an  introduction?  (Lat.  exordium,  Gr.  proem.) 
To  speak  in  general  terms,  it  is  something  which  conducts  to 
the  real  subject,  but  which  is  not  the  real  subject.  It  is  not, 
strictly  speaking,  the  beginning  of  the  discourse,  but  it 
leads  to  the  beginning.  It  does  not  even  include  all  that 
is  preliminary  to  the  proposition  in  the  way  of  actual  ex- 
planation or  clearing  up  of  difficulties ;  but  it  has  regard 
rather  to  the  state  of  mind  of  the  audience  and  of  the 
speaker,  putting  the  speaker  in  correspondence  with  the 
audience. 

We  would,  therefore,  more  fully  define  a  true  introduc- 
tion to  be,  all  that  precedes  the  real  discussion  of  the 
11 


122  PREACHING. 

subject,  and  which  is  fitted  to  secure  the  favorable,  attention 
of  the  hearer  to  the  speaker  and  to  his  theme. 

Quintilian  says,  "  An  exordium  is  designed  to  make  the 
hearer  think  favorably  of  what  the  speaker  is  about  to  say." 
Schott's  definition  is,  "All  that  part  of  a  sermon  which  is 
intended  to  prepare  the  hearers  for  the  body  of  the  sermon, 
by  bringing  them  into  the  same  circle  of  ideas  and  sympa- 
thy of  feeling  of  the  speaker."  Vinet  says  (Homiletics, 
J).  300),  "The  exordium  should  be  drawn  from  an  idea  in  im- 
mediate contact  with  the  subject,  without  forming  a  part  of 
it.  It  should  be  an  idea  between  which  and  that  of  the  dis- 
,  course  there  is  no  place  for  another  idea,  so  that  the  first 
step  we  take  out  of  that  idea,  transports  us  into  our 
subject." 

As  to  the  necessity  of  an  introduction,  although  there  may 
be  cases  where  an  introduction  is  not  necessary, — where  the 
subject,  for  instance,  is  a  very  familiar  one,  or  where  the 
audience  is  entirely  prepared  to  hear  it  discussed, — yet  the 
necessity  of  some  introduction  to  an  important  discourse, 
is  founded  in  nature  and  in  the  very  laws  of  the  mind. 

Nature  has  few  sudden  movements  ;  the  ocean  shelves  oflf 
graduall}^,  and  one  season  imperceptibly  introduces  another  ; 
a  thunder-storm  which  rends  the  heavens  is  preceded  by  a 
period  of  impressive  silence  and  warning ;  a  battle  is  usu- 
ally begun  by  skirmishing  and  tentative  operations  ;  a  legis- 
lative assembly  does  not  enter  upon  important  business  at 
the  first  moment  of  its  session,  but  the  way  is  gradually 
cleared  for  more  serious  questions.  The  human  mind, 
which,  in  its  healthy  state,  has  a  sense  of  dignity  and  self- 
respect,  does  not  like  to  be  hurried,  or  compelled  to  move 
by  another's  impulse  rather  than  by  its  own  voluntary  act ; 
it  will  not  be  pushed,  but  may  be  drawn. 

What,  let  us  ask,  are  some  of  the  objects  to  be  gained  by 
a  good  intr'oduction? 


§  12.      THE   INTRODUCTION.  123 

1.  To  remove  actual  prejudices  against  the  speaker. 

The  preacher  may  have  created  an  unfavorable  impres- 
sion by  his  course  of  action  in  some  particular ;  he  may  have 
aroused  the  jealousies  or  antagonism  of  a  certain  class  in  his 
audience  —  the  fashionable  class,  or  the  conservative  class, 
or  the  radical  class,  or  whatever  it  may  be.  He  may  possibly 
have  certain  traits  of  character,  which,  he  is  conscious,  place 
him  in  an  unfavorable  light  with  his  hearers,  especially  in  re- 
gard to  his  introduction  of  particular  subjects  ;  he  may  have 
excited  suspicions  of  his  orthodoxy,  or,  at  least,  of  his  sin- 
cere belief  in  some  portions  of  the  Christian  faith ;  and  yet, 
although  he  is  weak,  imperfect,  and  inconsistent,  the  truth 
must  be  preached,  the  instruction  must  be  given  to  the  peo- 
ple :  in  the  introduction,  then,  he  is  to  feel  his  way  through 
these  subtile,  popular  prejudices,  and  dispel  them,  if  they 
are  unjust,  without,  perhaps,  seeming  to  do  so.  It  is  not 
often  by  direct  allusions  to  himself  that  he  can  do  this,  but 
rather  by  indirect  suggestions  of  the  intrinsic  importance  of 
the  theme,  of  the  imperfection  of  preachers  and  of  men,  and 
of  the  perfection  of  truth. 

2.  To  create  a  favorable  regard  for  the  speaker. 

He  may  be  a  young  man,  a  comparative  stranger  ;  he  may 
have  an  abstruse,  or  what  may  be  called  even  an  ambitious 
theme  ;  he  should  begin  modestly  ;  —  the  old  Jewish  Eabbis 
used  to  say  that  "  the  creation  was  made  from  night  to  morn- 
ing, not  from  morning  to  night  ;"^ — he  should  avoid  making 
too  great  promises  of  what  he  intends  to  do  ;  he  should  show 
an  honest  interest  in  the  good  of  his  hearers,  without  saying 
too  much  about  it  —  above  all  things  avoiding  flattery  ;  he 
should  endeavor,  in  a  simple,  manly  M^ay,  to  bring  himself 
into  sympathy  wath  his  audience,  and  to  gain  their  good  will 
and  willing  hearing ;  and  to  he  modest,  to  be  in  earnest,  is 
the  best  way  to  efiect  this. 

3.  To  create  a  favorable  regard  for  the  subject, 

'  Bautain. 


124  PREACHING. 

The  preacher  is  to  turn  the  current  of  religious  feeling, 
already  set  flowing,  perhaps,  by  the  previous  devotional  ex- 
ercises, into  the  contemplation  of  some  definite  religious 
truth  or  duty,  into  some  positive  and  particular  direction. 
In  order  to  secure  this  end  of  a  favorable  regard  toward 
his  subject,  (a.)  He  may  state  the  intellectual  advantages  to 
be  derived  from  discussing  such  a  theme.  The  subject  may 
be  the  doctrine  of  moral  evil,  or  that  of  divine  sovereignty; 
it  may  be  stated  at  the  beginning,  that  these  are  the  great- 
est problems  of  the  human  mind,  meeting  the  philosopher 
as  well  as  the  theologian ;  that  they  have  called  forth  the 
strength  of  the  best  intellects  of  the  race  ;  that  no  problems 
are  more  difiicult,  and  therefore  none  more  deserving  of 
the  attention  of  thinking  minds,  (b.)  He  may  state  the 
connections  of  the  subject  with  other  more  practical  spiritual 
truths.  He  may  remove  the  prejudice  that  the  doctrine  has 
no  immediate  practical  bearing  or  utility,  even  as  deprav- 
ity, for  instance,  or  the  doctrine  of  sin,  lies,  in  one  sense, 
at  the  base  of  the  whole  Christian  system  of  the  atonement, 
regeneration,  holiness,  and  the  Christian  life.  (c.)  He 
may  make  some  historical  allusion  naturally  connected  with 
the  theme,  which  always  forms  an  attractive  introduction. 
{d.)  He  may  make  it  appear,  at  the  very  beginning,  that 
the  subject  bears  upon  the  welfare  of  all  his  hearers  ;  but 
one  should  be  careful  not  to  use  too  hackneyed  phrases 
about  the  greatness  and  importance  of  the  subject  in  hand, 
and  should  shun  stereotyped  introductions  like  the  ^^  constat 
inter  omnes"  of  the  old  scholastic  preachers.  The  clas- 
sic orators,  it  is  true,  had  introductions  prepared  before- 
hand, which  they  could  fit  to  any  subject ;  Cicero  recom- 
mends this ;  but  times  have  changed,  and  the  duty  of  the 
preacher,  above  all,  requires  simple  earnestness  and  truth  in 
all  parts  of  the  discourse.  He  should  so  treat  his  subject 
from  the  start,  that  his  hearers  will  be  impressed  with  the 
importance  of  it,  without  any  formal  stereotyped  assevera- 
tion of  its  importance,     (e.)  He  may  make  general   and 


§   12.       THE   INTRODUCTION.  125 

modifying  suggestions  in  the  introduction  ;  for  this  is  just 
the  place  for  these  incidental  remarks,  which  cannot  have  a 
a  proper  place  anywhere  else.  The  preacher,  looking  for- 
ward, wishes  to  give  a  certain  turn  to  the  discourse,  or  to 
draw  forth  a  new  idea  or  lesson  from  the  text.  In  the  intro- 
duction he  may  skilfully  prepare  the  way  for  this ;  he  may 
make  the  groove,  which  he  will  widen  and  deepen  for  the 
sermon  to  run  in.  In  the  introduction,  also,  he  may  set 
aside,  in  a  few  words,  any  false  impressions  which  a  certain 
text,  or  the  foreshadowing  of  a  certain  subject,  may  awaken  : 
here,  in  a  word,  he  is  still  free ;  he  has  not  yet  bound  him- 
self to  any  particular  line  of  thought,  and  he  has  the  advan- 
tage of  the  fresh  state  of  mind  of  his  audience,  and  of  the 
natural  curiosity  which  is  awaked  at  the  first  words  of  a 
discourse,  to  see  what  it  may  be,  and  what  may  be  the 
metal  of  the  speaker. 

The  qualities  of  a  good  introduction  may  be  resolved 
chiefly  into  four  —  jSimplicity,  Modesty,  Fitness,  and  Sug~ 
gestiveness. 

1.  Simplicity.  The  first  five  moments,  or  perhaps  three, 
of  a  discourse,  are  often  the  critical  moments,  and  success 
or  defeat  is  sometimes  contained  in  them ;  for,  one  may  see 
that  to  begin  a  sermon  in  a  stilted  or  highly  artificial  man- 
ner, is  to  insure  its  condemnation ;  but  as  a  ship  glides  out 
of  port  when  she  is  fully  ready,  with  a  steady  and  graceful 
motion,  so  a  sermon  should  begin  without  display,  but  with 
a  full  and  firm  consciousness  of  power  to  reach  the  end 
in  view. 

This  simplicity  in  the  introduction  may  be  violated,  (a.) 
B}'-  too  great  abstruseness.  There  may  be  an  interesting 
thought  in  the  introduction,  but  it  should  not  be  so  difficult 
and  deep  as  at  once  to  discourage  attention  :  it  should  be 
natural,  rather  than  abstruse..  (6.)  By  too  earnest  argu- 
ment. One  should  not  plunge  at  once  into  argument,  but 
he  should  trim  his  sails  and  enter  more  cautiously  upon  the 
11* 


126  PREACHING. 

open,  agitated  sea  of  discussion,  (c.)  By  too  impassioned 
and  imaginative  language.  It  is  not  well  to  be  brilliant 
immediately,  and  prose  is  always  better  than  poetry  to  start 
with.  One  may  sometimes  use  a  strong  and  homely  figure 
to  begin  with,  but  generally  anything  like  figurative  lan- 
guage is  in  bad  taste,  until  the  mind  is  warmed  up  to  it,  and 
it  glances  off  "like  sparks  from  a  working  engine." 

Appeals  to  feeling  are  generally  altogether  out  of  place 
in  the  introduction  ;  for  what  begins  in  excited  feeling  may 
end  either  in  frenz}'^  or  in  the  depths  of  ba^thos.  Bold 
flights  of  fiincy  and  startling  language  at  first,  produce  dul- 
ness  at  last.  Cicero  recommends  an  ornate  introduction,  in 
order  to  raise  and  embellish  the  character  of  what  succeeds  ; 
but  that  is  doubtful  advice  for  the  preacher  and  for  the  pres- 
ent' age.  The  simplicity  of  the  introduction,  however, 
should  be  rather  in  the  expression  than  in  the  thought ;  for 
it  is  a  great  blunder  to  begin  a  sermon  with  a  trite  truism, 
as,  ''The  young  may  die,  and  the  old  must,"  and  a  very  com- 
monplace beginning  generally  kills  the  sermon,  and  is  not 
simplicity,  (d.)  By  indirectness  of  thought  or  style.  All 
elaborate  and  circuitous  language  in  the  introduction,  in- 
genious sentences  and  painfully  wrought  antitheses,  are 
out  of  place,  for,  generally,  a  straight,  manly  marching  up 
to  a  subject  is  best,  as  Dr.  Barrow  said,  that  "a  straight 
line  is  the  shortest,  both  in  geometry  and  morals  ;"  and  to 
besfin  too  far  off  mav  lead  the  hearer's  mind  to  such  a  dis- 
tance  from  the  subject,  that  it  cannot  be  brought  back 
again  ;  but  a  simple  directness,  on  the  other  hand,  wins  the 
confidence  of  the  hearer.  To  conceal  the  subject  of  the 
sermon,  and  to  spring  it  by  surprise  on  the  audience,  ap- 
peals, after  all,  to  an  inferior  motive,  and  seems  to  have 
something  of  the  nature  of  "  clap-trap  "  in  it.  The  inter- 
est should  come  from  the  subject,  and  from  one's  power 
and  earnestness  in  treating  it :  this  is  the  beauty  of  Robert- 
son's introductions,  upon  which  we  have  commented;  they 
combine  both  originality  and  clearness  of  thought,    (e.)  By  . 


§  12.      THE   INTRODUCTION.  127 

being  too  long.  An  introduction,  almost  without  exception, 
should  be  brief;  for  divine  truth  does  not  lie  in  such  unfor- 
tunate and  obscure  circumstances  that  it  needs  protracted 
effort  to  bring  it  to  light,  or  to  introduce  it  to  the  human 
mind.  Augustine's  introductions  are  thus  generally  brief, 
simple,  and  beautiful.  Theremin  is  particularly  opposed 
to  long  introductions ;  he  says,  "  Time  spent  in  merely 
paving  the  way  for  the  idea  [of  the  discourse]  might  better 
be  employed  in  the  development  of  the  idea  itself."  He 
recommends  the  immediate  connection  of  the  idea  with 
some  one  of  those  plain  moral  or  religious  ideas  which  all 
understand  and  approve,  namely,  truth,  happiness,  or  duty, 
and  which  can  be  done  without  circumlocution.  No  intro- 
duction is  better  than  one  too  long  and  wearisome.  Interest 
in  the  main  subject  is  wasted,  and  cannot  be  easily  revived. 
It  is  the  experience  of  preachers,  which  is  itself  suggestive, 
that  as  one  grows  older  he  is  more  inclined  to  cut  off  sev- 
eral pages  of  the  introductions  of  his  earlier  written  sermons. 

2.  Modesty.  Self-conceit  in  the  introduction  is  fatal ; 
and  true  modesty  is  ever  the  most  effectual  way  of  gaining 
the  good  will  of  an  audience. 

Allusions  to  one's  self  should  be  rare,  and,  if  made, 
should  be  made  with  genuine  delicacy;  for  any  want  of 
respect  in  the  speaker's  manner  toward  the  audience  is 
revenged  often  by  their  indignation  and  contempt.  Too 
lofty  a  style,  to  begin  with,  offends  modesty  as  well  as 
simplicity ;  any  exhibition  of  a  sense  of  superior  learning, 
wisdom,  or  thought  is  unfortunate ;  and  no  modest  man, 
even  though  he  assume  the  office  of  teacher,  will  have  such 
a  feeling. 

In  Hobbes's  "Brief  to  the  Art  of  Rhetoric,"  he  says,  "That 
the  hearer  may  be  favorable  to  the  speaker,  two  things  are 
required  :  that  he  love  him  or  he  pity  him."  Now,  no  one 
can  love  or  pity  a  conceited  man ;  and  yet  modesty  is  not 
to  sink  into  feebleness  or  self-humiliation,  though  the  ancient 
orators  recommend  even   timidity  in  the  introduction,  in 


128  PREACHING. 

order  to  win  sympathy ;  but  this,  of  course,  could  not  be 
recommended  to  a  Christian  preacher ;  ''for  God  hath  not 
given  us  the  spirit  of  fear,  hut  of  power,  of  love,  and  of  a 
sound  mind.'"  Still,  one  who  rises  to  speak  on  the  great 
1  hemes  of  the  gospel,  with  a  due  sense  of  the  responsibility 
of  souls  committed  to  his  charge  and  guidance,  may  have 
a  reasonable  fear  of  not  being  equal  to  the  greatness  of  the 
occasion. 

3.  Fitness.  By  this  is  meant  that  the  introduction  should 
be  in  keeping  and  harmony  with  the  sermon ;  it  should 
spring  from  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  definite  aim  one 
has  in  vieAV  in  the  sermon. 

The  introduction  should  have  a  proportionate  and  sym- 
metrical relation,  also,  to  the  theme ;  it  should  not  be  in- 
vested with  independent  proportions,  as  if  it  were  a  subject 
of  its  own,  nor  should  it  have  the  infelicity  to  forestall  the 
argument  or  the  important  thoughts  of  the  sermon,  so  that 
the  interest  should  be  all  taken  up  in  the  introduction ;  it 
should  be  confined  to  its  own  place  and  Avork. 

4.  Suggestiveness .  The  fruitful,  suggestive,  and  original 
character  of  Robertson's  introductions  has  been  dwelt  upon  ; 
in  them  the  attention  of  the  audience  is  immediately  fas- 
tened upon  a  fresh  train  of  thought,  though  simply  ex- 
pressed ;  the  door  is  thrown  open  to  something  new  and 
powerfully  attractive ;  the  mind  is  delighted  with  the  pros- 
pect of  obtaining  new  ideas  on  familiar  but  eternal  truth, 
and  of  being  led  into  a  fresh  field  of  instruction ;  in  a 
word,  he  succeeds  in  arousing  interest,  which  is  the  great 
thing  to  be  aimed  at  in  an  introduction. 

Of  course  the  temptation  here  is  to  false  originality,  and 
to  the  saying  of  striking  things ;  and  some  preachers  have 
a  quaint  and  pungent  way  of  beginning  a  sermon,  which 
fastens  attention,  and  yet  borders  somewhat  too  closely  on 
wit ;  and  it  is  very  easy  for  a  witty  minister  to  be  too  witty. 
He  should  endeavor  to  make  his  wit  a  diflfused  element  of 
life  in  the  discourse,  rather   than  to  condense   it  into  a 


§  12.      THE   INTRODUCTION.  129 

sentence  which  strikes  too  smartly  upon  the  sense  of  the 
ridiculous ;  antl  even  that  which  is  profoundly  original  may 
be  simply  and  naturally  expressed.  One  may,  indeed,  no- 
tice in  some  of  our  best  New  England  preachers,  past  and 
present,  that  the  first  sentence  of  their  discourse  is  often  a 
very  weighty  one,  —  a  sentence  of  true  philosophical  pro- 
fundity,—  though  it  is  so  well  thought  through  that  it  is 
expressed  in  a  plain  and  simple  way.  The  first  sentence 
is  thus  often  the  germ  of  the  sermon ;  and  it  is  sometimes 
recommended  that  the  first  sentence  of  a  sermon  should  be 
one  that  sets  people  to  thinking ;  but  this  profoundness  of 
thought  at  starting  is  a  hazardous  thing,  and  unless  well 
done,  it  is  a  signal  failure ;  unless  the  thought  is  truly  pro- 
found, and  at  the  same  time  put  in  a  plain  and  practical 
form,  it  either  confuses  or  disgusts  an  audience,  so  that 
simple  good  sense  in  the  first  sentence  is,  generally  speak- 
ing, the  safer  course. 

The  following  may  be  given  as  one  example  of  a  beauti- 
ful and  suggestive  introduction  from  the  old  French  preacher, 
Michel  le  Faucheur :  "Rom.  8  :  27,  ^JVous  savons  que  toutes 
choses  aide  id  ensemble  en  Men  a  ceux  qui  aiment  DieuJ' 

"Notre  texte  contient  fort  peu  de  paroles,  mais  dont  le 

sens  est  merveilleusement  fecond Tout  ainsi  que 

quand  Dieu,  a  la  priere  d'Elie,  voulut  ouvrir  le  ciel,  conime 
a  sa  priere  il  I'avait  ferm^,  la  nuee  que  ce  prophete  vit  mon- 
trer  de  la  mer,  en  execution  de  cette  volonte  favorable  de 
Dieu,  n'etait  pas  plus  grande  que  la  paume  de  la  main  d'un 
homme,  mais  cependant  en  moins  de  rien  elle  couvrit  le  ciel 
de  nu^es  et  toute  la  terre  de  pluie,  de  meme  cette  sentence, 
quoique  fort  brieve,  si  vous  la  m^diter  attentivement,  en 
moins  d'une  heure  vous  fera  voir,  par  maniere,  tout  le  ciel 
rempli  des  merveilles  de  la  providence  de  Dieu  en  la  direc- 
tion et  en  la  conservation  de  tons  ceux  qui  I'airaent,  et  vos 
^mes  seront  arros^es  de  toutes  parts  des  consolations  de  sa 
grace." ^ 

}  Yinet'fl  Histoire  de  la  Predication,  &c.,  p.  107. 


130  PREACHING. 

The  Sources  of  Introduction,  though  they  may  be  almost 
endlessly  varied,  may  yet  all  be  classified  or'  brought  under 
four  principal  heads  :  — 

1.  The  circumstances  of  the  text.  The  time,  place,  and 
occasion  of  the  text  may  be  given  and  described ;  as  the 
scenic  surroundings  of  Paul  preaching  on  the  Areopagus, 
or  the  description  of  Athens,  of  Corinth,  of  Ephesus,  of 
Rome,  as  forming  attractive  prefaces  to  many  a  text  of  the 
Acts  and  the  Epistles.  The  historical  period  and  the  exact 
historical  circumstances  of  the  text,  and  also  its  local  and 
philological  relations,  are  always  admissible  :  indeed,  There- 
min lays  down  the  rule  that  the  introduction,  in  some  way 
or  shape,  should  invariably  be  drawn  from  the  context  — 
certainly  too  rigid  a  requisition. 

2.  The  relations  and  circumstances  of  the  subject.  These 
are  explanatory  observations,  prefatory  and  general  remarks  ; 
or,  it  may  be,  a  single  word  in  the  text  taken  and  remarked 
upon  for  a  moment ;  and  thus  the  w^ay  is  prepared  for  the 
main  subject;  e.  g.,  "Holiness,  ivithout  which  no  man  shall 
see  the  Lord."  Here  one  may  begin  to  remark  upon  the 
single  word  "  holiness,"  upon  its  true  evangelical  import,  and 
thus  lead  on  gradually  to  the  subject  which  shall  compre- 
hend the  whole  text,  of  which  "  holiness ''  forms  the  essence. 

3.  General  truth,  or  truths  preparatory  to  the  subject. 
This  method  of  generalizing'to  begin  with  may,  indeed,  be 
carried  to  excess,  and  may  lead  the  mind  awa}^  from  the 
definite  subject  in  hand  ;  and  it  is  therefore  better  to  begin 
as  nearly  as  possible  to  the  thing  itself,  and  not  to  indulge 
in  introductory  platitudes,  as  is  often  done  in  the  introduc- 
tions of  Blair.  It  is  well  to  take  some  specific  truth  or  fact 
leading  up  to  the  subject,  some  fit  comparison  or  similitude, 
some  historical  fact  or  proverb,  or  some  striking  quotation ; 
and  sometimes  an  imaginary  case  may  be  supposed  ;  as 
Massillon's  commencing  one  of  his  sermons  with  the  idea 
of  a  trial  or  court  scene  goins;  on. 

4.  Situation  of  speaker   and  audience.      This   requires 


§  12.      THE   INTRODUCTION.  131 

great  tact,  of  which  Cicero's  "Pro  Milone"  and  "/?i  Catili- 
nam  "  are  fine  examples. 

Topics  of  introductions  should  be  taken  generally  from 
things  rather  than  persons,  though  historical  examples,  even 
if  they  are  taken  from  secular  history,  are  sometimes  fitted 
to  arouse  attention,  and  they  form  happy  introductions. 

A  series  of  good  hints  as  to  the  sources  of  exordiums,  or 
introductions,  is  given  in  Vinet's  Homiletics,  p.  302. 

Introductions  are  sometimes  called  "the  crosses  of  preach- 
ers," because  beginnings  are  always  difficult ;  but  no  intro- 
duction is  better  than  a  bad  one ;  and  sometimes  it  is  best 
to  plunge  at  once  into  deep  waters. 

As  to  the  time  of  writing  the  introduction,  every  one  is 
his  own  best  judge  :  perhaps  it  should  not  be  the  first  or  the 
last  thing  written ;  but  it  should  be  done  when  the  mind  is 
fully  possessed  of  the  subject,  and  when  one  cannot  help  say- 
ing just  what  he  does,  in  order  to  lay  the  theme  fitly  before 
the  audience.  "  As  the  introduction  is  only  a  subsidiary 
and  a  preparatory  part  of  a  discourse,  the  topics  which  it 
must  embrace,  and  the  form  in  which  it  should  appear,  can- 
not be  fully  known  until  the  nature  and  form  of  the  propo- 
sition and  of  the  discussion  are  well  ascertained  by  the 
speaker.  Hence  the  proper  time  for  the  invention  and 
composition  of  the  introduction  is  after  the  subject  has  been 
thoroughly  studied,  and  the  general  form  of  the  discussion 
well  settled  in  the  mind."^  This  is  also  Quintiliau's  advice,^ 
who  is  especially  full  and  excellent  on  the  subject  of  the 
"exordium,"  proving  that  little  can  be  added  to  what  the 
ancients  have  said  upon  oratory.  Vinet  says,  "There  is 
always  an  exordium  which  is  better  than  any  other,  and  it 
is  that  on  which  the  true  orator  ordinarily  falls  ;  "  therefore 
it  is  well  for  the  preacher  to  have  before  his  mind,  or  to  set 
before  his  mind,  precisely  what  end  he  has  in  view,  and 

'  Day's  Rhetoric,  p.  48.  *  Instit.,  B.  III.,  c.  9,  s.  8. 


132  PEE  ACHING. 

what  he  is  conscious  he  is  able  to  do  to  attain  that  end  ; 
and  this  will  guide  him  to  say  the  right  thing  to  begin 
with,  for  the  introduction  should  ever  have  an  eye  to  the 
conclusion. 

§  13.     The  Explanation. 

The  explanation  of  a  sermon  comprehends  all  that  is 
required  for  the  purpose  of  elucidating  the  meaning  and 
force  of  the  text,  and  of  thus  obtaining  from  it  the  true 
subject  of  the  discourse.     It  refers  exclusively  to  the  text. 

Vinet  says  that  "  the  explanation  is  purely  definition,  and 
not  judgment."  It  is  the  defining  of  the  actual  terms  and 
contents  of  the  text,  so  that  its  true  theme  may  be  dis- 
tinctly presented  to  the  mind.  It  not  only  embraces  the 
etymological  definition  of  the  text,  or  that  of  its  verbal 
terms,  but,  above  all,  its  rational  definition,  or  that  of  its 
complete  object  of  thought;  it  is,  in  fact,  bringing  out  in 
its  wholeness  the  full  and  entire  meaning  which  the  text  is 
intended  to  convey. 

An  "  expository  "  sermon  may  be  said  to  be  wholly  taken 
up  with  the  explanation ;  but  in  every  ordinary  sermon, 
with  few  exceptions,  the  explanation  has  its  distinct  place, 
and  is  applied  to  the  precise  matter  of  defining  the  text,  so 
that  its  true  subject  may  be  presented.  It  does  nothing 
more  than  this ;  it  may  suggest,  but  it  does  not  formally 
state  the  subject ;  it  leads  the  way  to  the  proposition  and 
argument,  but  it  is  clearly  distinguished  from  them. 

A  sermon,  according  to  Vinet,  really  consists  of  but  two 
parts  —  the  explanation  and  the  proof;  but  we  prefer  to 
limit  the  use  of  the  explanation  to  the  simple  object  of 
defining  what  the  text  means. 

As  to  the  extent  of  the  explanation,  it  includes  both  the 
facts  and  the  sentiments  of  the  text,  or,  in  other  words,  the 
narrative  and  the  exposition. 


§  13.       THE   EXPLANATION.  133 

1.  The  Karrative.  This  is  the  investigation  and  setting 
forth  of  the  more  purely  objective  truth  of  the  passage  in 
its  relations  to  time,  place,  and  circumstance.  It  is  view- 
ing the  text  in  the  concrete.  It  is  the  consideration  of  the 
why^  howy  and  what  of  the  passage,  especially  in  relation 
to  the  time  in  which  it  originated.  Great  skill  may  be  used 
here  in  accurately  developing,  in  their  order  of  time,  all 
the  important  and  perhaps  hidden  facts  involved  in  the 
text ;  in  taking  it  apart,  and  showing  the  true  order  and 
harmonious  relations  of  the  parts  to  one  another  and  to 
the  whole.  Where  the  text  is  a  very  easy  and  familiar  one, 
all  the  explanation  that  is  needed  may  be  included  in  a  few 
words  of  the  introduction ;  but,  generally  speaking,  some 
discussion  is  required  to  set  forth  the  facts  of  the  text 
clearly  and  distinctly,  even  without  developing  any  new 
truth  from  it,  or  proving  anything  in  particular  by  it.  A 
lawyer  usually  makes  the  explanatory  narrative  the  most 
important  and  telling  part  of  his  address  or  plea ;  he  shows 
his  consummate  skill  in  collating  facts,  in  explaining  cir- 
cumstances and  events,  so  as  to  bear  upon  any  particular 
point  or  principle  that  he  desires  to  establish ;  thus  Cicero's 
oration  for  Milo  has  its  chief  strength  in  the  exquisite  skill 
of  the  narrative. 

This  is  also  the  place  for  description,  especially  historical 
description^  although  that  refers,  strictly,  to  place  rather 
than  to  time.  Geographical,  historical,  and  pictorial  de- 
scriptions in  a  sermon  should  be  brief,  truthful,  and  vivid, 
and  not  highly  wrought  or  poetical.  The  imagination  may 
be  indulged,  but  it  should  be  remembered  that  a  sermon  is 
prose,  not  poetry.  When  the  materials  for  description  are 
ample,  they  should  not  be  so  largely  drawn  upon  as  to  make* 
it  apparent  that  the  sermon  was  written  in  order  to  give  the 
preacher  an  opportunity  to  discuss  the  topography  of  Jeru- 
salem or  Athens,  or  to  paint  a  glowing  picture  of  a  sacred 
scene,  in  order  to  display  his  fancy  and  learning;  but,  at 
the  same  time,  everything  which  tends  to  vivify  divine 
12 


134  PREACHING. 

truth,  and  draw  attention  to  it,  and  make  it  fresh  and  forci- 
ble, is  perfectly  justifiable.  Whately  says,  "Let  not  your 
sermons  be  avowedly  hortatory,  nor  begin  with  exhorta- 
tion ;  let  your  apparent  object  be  explanation.  Ignorance 
is  not  the  greatest,  but  it  is  the  first  evil  to  be  removed ; 
it  is  also  the  one  most  in  your  power  to  remove,  and  it  is 
one  which  people  will  not  be,  in  the  outset,  so  much  dis- 
gusted to  be  told  of.  And  do  not  think  anything  irrele- 
vant, however  remote  it  may  seem  from  Christian  practice, 
that  tends  to  interest  them  in  Scripture  studies  and  religious 
topics."  ^ 

2.  The  Exposition.  This  is,  by  all  means,  the  principal 
part  of  the  explanation.  It  regards  the  text  in  the  abstract 
rather  than  in  the  concrete  ;  and  it  is  more  strictly  the  defi- 
nition of  the  precise  terms  and  contents  of  the  text.  It 
does  not  concern  itself  about  the  text,  so  much  as  it  does 
with  the  very  words  and  substance  of  the  text.  It  compre- 
hends, first  of  all,  a  correct  verbal  definition  of  the  passage,  a 
literal  explanation  of  the  terms  of  the  text — simple,  it  may 
be,  in  its  results,  yet  one  that  demands  thorough  study  and 
scholarship ;  and,  in  addition  to  this,  and  above  all,  it  in- 
cludes an  honest  effort  to  arrive  at  the  internal  meaning  of 
the  passage.'  It  is  viewing  the  text  subjectively.  It  is  look- 
ing at  it,  or  rather  into  it,  as  taken  out  of  its  relations  to 
time,  place,  and  circumstance.  It  is  endeavoring  to  come 
at  the  absolute  truth,  or  the  general  principle  involved  in 
the  text.  It  is,  perhaps,  as  near  as  anything,  what  we  mean 
by  the  expression,  "the  true  spirit  of  the  text."  This  is 
the  most  important  idea  of  the  text,  because  the  outward 
facts  and  circumstances  of  the  text  are  comprehended  in 
this  inner  meaning.  This  definition  of  the  idea  contained 
in  an  important  passage  of  divine  truth  is  often  the  most 
diflSicult  and  taxing  part  of  the  whole  sermon ;  for  nothing 
is  more  difficult  than  definition,  especially  the  definition  of 

'  Life  of  Eichard  Whately,  vol.  i.,  p.  210.    Letters  to  a  Young  Clergyman. 


§  13.      THE   EXPLANATION.  135 

ideas.  It  is  the  complete  separation  of  the  idea  from  all 
other  ideas  and  objeofs  of  thought.  It  is  looking  at  it  as  a 
•vvhole,  so  that  the  proposition  follows  this  mastery  of  the 
true  idea,  or  the  essential  meaning  of  the  text,  as  a  matter 
of  course. 

There  may  exist  doubt  as  to  the  true  meaning  of  a  text, 
and  several  meanings  may  be  claimed  by  the  best  scholars 
and  thinkers  ;  here  patient  and  honest  thought  is  required. 
There  may  be,  also,  wholly  difierent  ideas,  and  classes  of 
ideas,  drawn  from  the  same  passage ;  and  there  may  be, 
further  still,  various  shades  of  ideas  comprehended  in  it: 
in  the  explanation,  therefore,  it  is  necessary  not  only  to  get 
at  the  best  exposition  of  the  true  principle  contained  in  the 
text,  but  to  have  a  clear  and  indejpendent  idea  of  our  own 
concerning  it ;  to  come  ourselves  to  a  distinct  and  original 
concej)tion  of  the  truth  taught  in  the  text.  This  view 
should  be  clearly  defined,  and  should  be  the  result  of  accu- 
rate investigation  with  all  the  helps  of  scholarship ;  and 
then  what  follows  in  the  other  portions  of  the  sermon  will 
have  good  foundations  to  rest  upon. 

There  are  some  classes  of  texts  which  particularly  de- 
mand exjplanation.  Almost  every  text,  being  in  a  dead 
language,  requires  some  brief  explanation  ;  but  those  which 
absolutely  demand  it  may  be  chiefly  divided  into  three 
classes  :  — 

(1.)  Typical  and  figurative  texts.  These  all  contain 
some  true  meaning,  and  that  true  meaning,  or  literal  truth 
conveyed  by  them,  is  to  be  set  forth;  e.  g.,  Ps.  84:  11, 
^^For  the  Lord  is  a  sun  and  shield;  the  Lord  will  give  grace 
and  glory ;  no  good  thing  2vill  he  loithhold  from  them  that 
walk  uprightly."  Here  are  two  distinct  ideas  of  the  nature 
of  God  metaphorically  inwoven  (it  would  seem)  through 
the  whole  verse.  God  is  not  only  a  sun  —  the  source  of 
light  and  truth  —  but  a  shield  —  the  source  of  strength, 
protection,  daily  providential  oversight;    he  is  the  giver 


136  PREACHING. 

both  of  glory  and  grace ;  he  is  so  as  regards  the  whole  of 
our  life,  external  and  internal.  (2.)  Texts  whose  sense  is 
complicated,  and  open  to  controversy.  (3.)  Texts  of  deep 
and  pregnant  meaning,  not  at  once  obvious,  but  connected, 
it  may  be,  with  some  previous  truth,  argument,  or  fact. 
Especially  under  this  head  are  to  be  classed  texts  of  pro- 
found spiritual  meaning. 

The  materials  or  sources  of  the  explanation  are  manifold. 

1.  Philological  analysis.  This  embraces  a  close  and 
accurate  verbal  exegesis  of  the  passage,  and  the  different 
modes  of  stating  and  explaining  the  text,  or  the  different 
views  which  may  be  and  have  been  taken  of  it,  as  well  as 
the  refutation  of  false  modes  of  interpreting  the  text  — 
those,  perchance,  which  are  in  common  use.  One  may 
thus  judiciously  present  the  more  correct  translation  of  a 
text;  e.  g.,  Kom.  12:  1,  ^^ That  ye  present  your  bodies  a 
living  sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  unto  God,  which  is  your 
reasonable  service^'' — x\v  XoyiyJiP  laiQeiuv,  —  the  literal  mean- 
ing of  loyiii^f  here,  as  in  particular  passages  in  John  4 :  23, 
Rom.  7:  25,  1  Pet.  3  :  2,  is  ''spiritual"  —  "pertaining  to 
the  spiritual,  or  the  soul's  life ; "  or  the  passage  in  Philipp. 
3:  20,  —  ''Our  conversation  is  in  heaven,"  where  the  word 
cToltTsv/.tu,  rendered  "conversation,"  is,  strictly  and  nobly, 
"citizenship."  The  drawing  out  and  binding  together  of 
a  complicated  parable,  like  that  of  the  unjust  steward, 
which  requires  the  strict  defining  of  terms  and  their  con- 
nections, as  well  as  the  elucidation  of  the  meaning  of  the 
whole,  and  the  explanation  of  such  a  weighty,  profound 
passage  as  1  Tim.  3:16,  are  familiar  examples  of  the  abso- 
lute need  of  accurate,  scholarly  analysis.  In  fine,  the  criti- 
cal scholarship  and  pure  learning  required  in  the  sermon 
thus  generally  come  in  the  explanation ;  there  they  find  a 
true  place,  though  even  there  they  should  not  be  obtruded, 
and  should  manifest  results  rather  than  processes. 

2.  JExamination  of  the  relative  position  of  the  text,  or 


§  13.      THE    EXPLANATION.  137 

the  study  of  what  is  called  the  "context."  The  detaching 
of  texts  from  their  context  has  been  a  source  of  mischief 
in  preaching  as  great  as,  at  the  beginning  of  the  recent 
war,  the  too  great  separation  of  our  smaller  military  divis- 
ions from  the  main  body,  was  to  the  success  of  our  arms. 

3.  Oomimrison  with  ^parallel  jiassages  and  with  the  main 
scope  of  Scr'ipture.  This  fills  up  cavities,  enriches  the  mean- 
ing, clears  obscurities,  and  modifies  and  defines  the  limits 
of  the  truth  taught  by  the  particular  passage. 

4.  Development  of  historical  facts.  The  preacher  ought 
not  to  presume  too  much  on  the  intelligence  of  his  congre- 
gation in  this  respect — that  they  are  all  well  informed  even 
on  the  most  familiar  historical  points ;  but  he  should  bring 
to  bear  the  animating  influence  of  his  own  richer  and  wider 
historical  knowledge.  This  is  a  great  source  of  interest. 
The  most  minute  historical  allusion  often  throws  sudden 
light  upon  the  text.  John  7  :  37,  "/?i  the  last  day^  that 
great  day  of  the  feast,  Jesus  stood  and  cried,  saying.  If 
any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me  and  drink."  This 
was  uttered  upon  the  very  day  on  which  the  priests  em- 
ployed the  symbol  of  pure  water  in  the  temple,  and  in  many 
ways  made  this  water-symbolism  strikingly  prominent.  As 
another  instance,  Matthew,  the  only  evangelist  who  gives 
us  the  parable  of  the  publican  and  the  Pharisee,  was  him- 
self by  profession  a  publican.  Such  an  historical  fact  as 
the  military  Roman  law  which  compelled  the  use  of  any 
man  or  beast  along  the  road  illustrates  the  sentence,  ^^  If 
any  man  compel  thee  to  go  a  mile,  go  with  him,  twain."  The 
closing  of  the  gate  in  all  oriental  cities,  even  to  this  day,  at 
an  early  hour  in  the  evening,  gives  force  to  the  Saviour's 
words,  ^'Strive  to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate;  for  many,  I 
say  unto  you,  shall  seek  to  enter  in,  but  shall  not  be  able." 

5.  Scientific  illustrations.  The  preacher  should  lay  his 
hand  on  these  boldly ;  and  he  may  thus,  in  an  eminently 
scientific  age  like  the  present,  win  new  interest  for  religious 
truth,  which  is  unscientific  and  undefined.     What  is  called 

12* 


138  PREACHING. 

the  modern  science  of  "Egyptology,"  founded  upon  the 
inductive  process,  has  totally  destroyed  the  triumph  of  false 
science  in  regard  to  biblical  antiquities,  so  destructive  of 
the  authenticity  of  the  Scriptures.  In  like  manner  geologi- 
cal science  is  a  splendid  contribution  to  theology,  as  to  the 
main  truth  of  the  unity  and  order  of  the  plan  of  creation. 
Science,  as  well  as  Art,  and  all  the  arts,  will  become  more 
and  more  the  auxiliary  to  the  interpretation  of  divine  truth. 
Chrysostom,  Luther,  Chalmers,  Arnold,  and  even  John 
Wesley,  were  not  afraid  of  learning  and  science,  consider- 
ing that  the  principles  of  the  natural  and  spiritual  worlds 
emanate  from  the  same  mind,  although  revelation  will 
never  be  squared  to  science ;  and  we  may  look  in  vain  for 
this,  for  the  Bible  is  not,  and  never  can  be  made,  a  scien- 
tific book.  But  there  is  one  field  where  a  little  scientific 
knowledge  is  all-important  to  the  preacher ;  and  that  is, 
in  the  geography  of  biblical  lands :  he  should  know  the 
difierence  between  "Antioch  in  Syria"  and  "Antioch  in  Pi- 
sidia,"  and  what  was  meant  by  the  "Asia"  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, and  the  history  and  derivation  of  the  "  Galatians  " 
of  Asia  Minor,  and  such  geographical  and  historical  facts 
as  clear  up  difiiculties  in  biblical  interpretation. 

6.  AjppUcation  of  the  laws  of  common  sense.  Everything 
must  be  brought  to  that.  Great  scholars  sometimes  lose 
their  common  sense  ;  and  the  use  of  the  homely  and  inde- 
pendent principle  of  common  sense  will  do  away  with  many 
perverse  interpretations  of  Scripture  which  have  been  sus- 
tained by  learning  falsely  applied. 

7.  The  setting  forth  of  the  animus  of  the  ivj'iter.  This 
would  influence  the  meaning  of  much  that  was  written  by 
John,  and  James,  and  Peter,  and  Paul ;  and  while  the 
marked  difierences  of  the  Pauline,  Petri ne,  and  Johannean 
manifestations  of  divine  truth  are  presented  to  us  in  a  forci- 
ble manner  in  such  a  work  as  Neander's  "Planting  and 
Training,"  the  careful  study  of  the  inspired  writings  them- 
selves is  better  still.     Inspiration  admits  the  human  ele- 


§  13.      THE   EXPLANATION.  139 

ment,  and  takes  form  from  the  peculiarities  of  individual 
mind  and  character ;  and,  indeed,  we  have  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  idiosyncrasies  of  character  were  taken  advantage 
of  by  the  Spirit  for  the  development  of  particular  truths. 
Paul's  mind,  experience,  and  culture  wonderfully  fitted  him 
for  the  expression  and  inculcation  of  the  liberal  doctrines 
of  Christianity,  which  embrace  the  human  race,  and  the 
universal  application  of  the  principles  of  redemption. 

The  peculiar  condition  of  the  author's  mind  at  the  time 
of  wiHting  or  speaking  is  also  important  as  affecting  his 
meaning.  Our  Lord  himself,  when  he  was  in  the  humblest 
and  obscurest  circumstances,  spoke  the  words,  "/  am  the 
light  of  the  world."  When  Paul  was  in  the  gloomy  depths 
of  the  Mammertine  prison  he  exhorted  men  to  glory  in  the 
cross  of  Christ. 

One  expression,  also,  of  a  scriptural  writer  may  be  set 
over  against  another  expression  of  the  same  writer,  uttered 
in  entirely  different  circumstances  and  states  of  mind ;  thus 
the  character  and  history  of  David  abound  in  striking  con- 
trasts ;  cross  lights  are  strong  lights. 

8.  By  setting  forth  the  animus  and  spirit  of  the  age  in 
which  the  text  was  written.  The  celestial  utterances  of  the 
"Sermon  on  the  Mount,"  and  the  broad  precepts  of  Chris- 
tianity in  the  Epistles,  may  be  contrasted  with  the  narrow 
Jewish  theology,  the  clashing  Greek  philosophies,  and  the 
imperious  and  ferocious  ideas  of  the  best  Eoman  civiliza- 
tion of  the  time. 

9.  By  showing  the  character  and  condition  of  the  persons 
addressed.  "Feed  my  sheep"  would  not,  in  all  probability, 
have  been  addressed  to  the  loving  apostle  John,  but  rather 
to  the  ambitious,  impetuous,  forth-putting  Peter.  The  Epis- 
tle to  the  Philippians  was  written  to  a  kind  of  people  very 
different  from  that  to  which  the  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians 
was  written. 

10.  By  showing  the  particular  object  for  which  the  pas- 
sage was  spoken  or  written.     ^' Sell  all  that  thou  hast"  was 


140  PREACHING. 

not  spoken  to  a  poor  man,  but  was  addressed  to  the  pecu- 
liar form  of  selfishness  in  which  a  wealthy  young  man's 
impenitence  was  garnered  up.  Our  Lord's  parables  were 
intended  to  arouse  thought,  and  to  sow  truth  in  the  hearts 
of  a  people  where  the  direct  word  of  truth  would  have  been 
treated  with  contempt,  would  have  been  trampled  under  foot. 
1 1 .  By  bringing  forth  the  hidden  tone  and  qualities  of 
the  text.  That  is,  by  listening  to  it  not  so  much  with  the  ear 
of  the  mind  as  with  the  ear  of  the  heart,  and  catching  its 
true  spirit.  Even  its  rhetorical  qualities  of  naturalness, 
beauty,  and  force  are  not  to  be  neglected ;  but  by  long 
meditation,  and,  above  all,  by  prayer,  one  should  strive  to 
penetrate  into  the  inmost  soul  of  a  passage,  till  its  full 
original  tone  comes  out.  One  should  look  into  his  own 
soul,  and  see  how  a  text  responds  to  his  own  spirit,  since 
the  study  of  the  laws  of  the  soul  now  will  give  one  a  key 
to  unlock  spiritual  truth  spoken  ages  ago,  for  the  human 
heart  is  the  same,  and  God  is  the  same.  The  study  of  the 
laws  of  the  divine  mind  will  alone  enable  one  to  penetrate 
into  the  hidden  meaning  of  the  divine  word ;  the  spirit  only 
comprehends  the  mind  of  the  spirit.  "  TJie  natural  man 
discerneth  not  the  things  of  the  spirit  of  God^  for  they 
are  spiritually  discerned." 

As  to  the  qualities  of  the  explanation,  it  should  be, — 

1.  True.  It  should  develop  the  true  meaning  of  the 
text,  neither  more  nor  less  —  not  the  meaning  which  this  one 
or  that  one  would  give  it,  or  which  we  ourselves,  perhaps, 
would  desire  to  give  it.  Honesty  in  the  explanation  strength- 
ens all  other  parts  of  the  discourse.  One  may  strive  for 
the  greatest  vividness  of  impression  in  bringing  out  the  full 
idea  of  the  passage ;  but  when  he  goes  beyond  the  truth 
taught,  then  it  is  an  unworthy  means  of  impression,  which 
will  react  disastrously.  It  is  even  better  to  understate  than 
to  overstate  the  truth. 

2.  Perspicuous.      The  ex'planation  is  not  the  place  for 


§  13.       THE   EXPLANATION.  141 

discursiveness ;  there  all  should  be  exact  and  concise,  clear 
and  convincing.  That  is  laying  the  foundations.  Definition 
should  be  neat,  proper,  and  finished  work.^  One  should 
avoid  learned  terms,  and  should  produce  the  results  rather 
than  the  terms  of  philology.  In  the  evolution  of  long  pas- 
sages it  is  particularly  essential  to  avoid  obscurity  ;  and  it 
is  well  to  seize  upon  the  main  idea  of  the  passage,  and 
make  that  stand  out  clearly,  while  the  subordinate  parts  are 
grouped  around  it. 

3.  Brief.  Jonathan  Edwards  is  said,  by  good  judges 
of  his  sermonizing,  to  have  spent  too  much  time  in  expo- 
sition, thus  confusing  the  true  sense  of  the  passage.  Mod- 
ern learning  should  expedite  explanation.  But  sometimes 
it  is  not  possible  to  make  the  expljlhation  brief,  for  the 
whole  sermon  may  depend  upon,  and,  in  fact,  consist  of, 
the  evolving  of  a  particular  and  perhaps  recondite  mean- 
ing of  the  text.  Brevity  is  violated,  (a.)  By  explaining 
things  which  need  no  explanation ;  a  sermon  is  often  ren- 
dered insufferably  tedious  in  this  way;  (6.)  By  seeking  to 
explain  simple  ideas,  or  absolute  truths,  which  cannot  be 
analyzed,  such  as  "God,"  "love,"  "life,"  "spirit;"  (c.)  Bij 
•making  side  issues,  or  going  out  of  the  way  to  explain  diffi- 
culties which  the  text  might  suggest,  but  which  it  does  not 
suggest  to  any  in  the  congregation,  and  which  do  not  fall 
within  the  scope  of  the  sermon  to  clear  up.  The  common 
mind  is  wearied  Avith  such  excursions  to  explain  difficulties 
that  do  not  originate  in  itself,  and  which  it  cares  nothing 
about.  Solid  difficulties  it  can  appreciate,  and  it  will 
patiently  bear  with  their  explanation.  Those  difficulties 
are  chiefly  practical  —  those  hard  things  in  truth,  doctrine, 
and  life,  especially  in  the  beginning  of  the  spiritual  life,  of 
which  all  men  have  some  experience. 

While  the  explanation  is  thus  concise,  it  need  not  be  dry. 
It  should  not  be  a  mere  analysis  of  words  and  sentences, 

'  Quintilian's  Instit.,  B.  VII.,  c.  3,  s.  1. 


142  PREACHING. 

but  a  search  after  the  living  truth,  conducted  with  anima- 
tion and  zest.  "Definition,"  Vinet  says,  "as  much  as  possi- 
ble, should  excite  and  stimulate  the  free  and  vital  forces  of 
the  soul.  Perfect  definition  is  that  which  at  the  same  time 
gives  knowledge,  comprehension,  feeling,  and  faith." ^ 

4.  Modest.  There  may  be  all  the  scholarship  that  is 
needed  in  it,  but  it  should  be  modestly  expressed.  Any 
pretentious  display  of  commentators  and  names  of  learned 
authors,  especially  foreign  authors,  if  harmless,  is  foolish. 
Above  all,  a  rash  and  arrogant  attack  on  our  English  ver- 
sion is  immodest  and  harmful.^ 

5.  It  should  suggest  the  proposition  or  subject  of  the  ser- 
mon. It  should  build  up  the  discourse  to  this  point,  where 
the  proposition  stands  forth  from  all  these  preparatory  scaf- 
foldings of  definition,  firm  and  clear.  There  should  be  a 
natural  and  logical  step  from  the  explanation  up  to  the 
proposition.  The  proposition  —  the  explanation  seems  to 
say  —  is  thus  the  great  lesson  of  the  text.  "  Whatever," 
says  Abbd  Maury,  "  in  this  part  of  the  discourse,  doth  not 
lead  to  the  principal  parts  of  a  sermon,  is  useless." 

6.  It  should  bear  upon  every  part,  even  upon  the  conclu- 
sion, of  a  sermon.  The  explanation  should  skilfully  pre- 
pare for  each  after  step  and  thought ;  it  should  lay  its  train 
for  every  future  blow.  While  there  is  development  after 
the  explanation,  there  should  yet  be  the  introduction  of  no 
absolutely  new  or  foreign  truth  in  the  progress  of  the  ser- 
mon, the  idea  of  which,  or  the  ground  of  the  introduction 
of  which,  is  not  in  some  way  brought  out  or  suggested  in 
the  explanation. 

As  to  the  time  and  place  of  the  explanation,  its  natural 
place  is  immediately  after  the  introduction ;  but  it  is  some- 
times intermingled  with  the  introduction,  and  sometimes 
takes  the  place  of  it.    The  more  important  of  the  two  should 

'  Homiletics,  p.  169. 

^  Waltham's  Old  English  Prose  Authors,  vol.  vi.,  p.  286. 


§  14.       THE   PEOPOSITION.  143 

precede.  Nevertheless,  although  we  have  assigned  to  the 
explanation  a  formal  place  immediately  after  the  introduc- 
tion, and  though  the  best  authorities,  ancient  and  modern, 
would  give  it  this  place  ;  yet  even  this  rule  is  not  a  rigid 
one ;  for  however  or  wherever,  in  the  course  of  a  sermon, 
we  define  the  text,  and  bring  out  its  true  sense  more  clearly, 
there  is  the  explanation.  It  may  be  direct  or  indirect ;  it 
may  precede  or  follow  the  theme  ;  it  may  be  in  the  nature 
of  elaborate  analysis,  or  of  more  brief,  condensed  synthe- 
sis ;  but  the  explanation,  in  all  cases,  is  the  use  of  the  criti- 
cal faculty  employed  upon  the  interpretation  of  the  text, 
rather  than  the  exercise  of  the  logical  or  more  strictly 
reasoning  faculty,  which  arrives  at  general  truths,  and 
develops  the  ultimate  relations  of  the  truth  which  is  thus 
distinctly  evolved. 

§  14.     The  Proj>osition. 

"A  proposition,"  says  Whately,  "signifies  a  sentence  in 
which  something  is  said  —  afBrmed  or  denied  —  of  another. 
That  which  is  spoken  of  is  called  the  '  subject '  of  the  propo- 
sition ;  and  that  which  is  said  of  it  is  called  the  ^predicate;' 
and  these  two  are  called  the  Herms^  of  the  proposition, 
from  their  being  in  natural  order  the  extremes  or  bounda- 
ries of  it."  ^ 

A  proposition  is  either  logical  or  rhetorical.  A  logical 
proposition  is  "a  judgment  expressed  in  words;"  as,  "The 
character  of  sin  is  progressive."  A  logical  proposition 
demands  proof. 

A  rhetorical  or  general  proposition  is  the  simple  announce- 
ment of  any  fact  or  truth:  as,  "The  immutability  of  the 
law ; "  or,  put  into  a  more  formal  statement,  "  My  subject 
of  discourse  is,  the  immutability  of  the  law."  A  rhetori- 
cal proposition  admits  of  general  discussion,  without  strictly 
demanding  proof. 

'  Beasooing,  p.  32. 


144  PREACHING. 

But  what,  definitely,  is  the  j)ropositio7i  of  a  sermon?  The 
proposition  in  a  sermon  is  that  portion  in  which  the  subject  of 
the  sermon  is  more  distinctly  and  more  formally  announced. 

The  place  of  such  a  proposition  may  be  at  the  beginning 
or  at  the  end  of  a  discourse,  according  to  the  method  which 
we  pursue  —  whether  we  take  a  given  truth  and  analyze  it, 
or,  from  its  various  scattered  elements,  we  build  it  up  grad- 
ually into  the  enunciation  of  some  general  synthetic  truth. 

The  place,  time,  and  method  of  announcing  the  proposi- 
tion may  thus  be  varied. 

It  may,  however,  be  laid  down  as  an  almost  invariable 
principle,  that  it  increases  the  facility  of  apprehension  and 
the  degree  of  interest  on  the  part  of  the  audience,  to  an- 
nounce, as  near  the  beginning  of  the  discourse  as  possible ^ 
what  is  the  subject  under  discussion.  Therefore,  as  a  gen- 
eral rule,  the  proposition,  in  some  more  or  less  distinct 
shape,  should  immediately  follow  the  explanation.  At  all 
events,  the  preacher  should  have  a  definite  proposition  or 
subject  to  speak  to,  whether  he  announces  it  sooner  or  later, 
or  whether  he  announces  it  formally  or  not. 

But  the  subject  may  be  a  complex  one,  involving  many 
particular  subjects,  or  propositions,  under  some  more  gen- 
eral theme,  different  parts  of  the  same  subject,  or  diifereut 
views  of  the  same  subject.  In  such  cases  the  proposition 
must  be  brought  forward  in  parts,  in  the  form  of  a  more 
gradual  development  of  the  subject,  at  various  stages  of 
the  discourse. 

Perhaps,  also,  in  some  cases,  it  would  not  do  to  announce 
the  subject  at  once  ;  the  audience  are  not  prepared  for  it,  or 
they  may  be  prejudiced  against  it,  or  they  may  be  entirely 
ignorant  of  it.  At  all  events,  a  process  of  careful  prepara- 
tion is  needed  to  clear  the  way  for  the  definite  statement  of 
the  subject.  There  are,  however,  few  subjects  that  a  min- 
ister is  called  to  preach  upon  which  he  may  not  clearly  and 
boldly  announce  at  the  very  outset. 


§  14.       THE    PROPOSITION.  145 

Mullois,  the  Catholic  writer,  says,  "Let  it  be  perceived 
at  once  what  the  subject  is,  and  what  yon  intend  to  say. 
Sketch  out  your  truth  in  a  few  sententious  words,  clearly 
and  emphatically  enunciated.  Let  there  be  none  of  those 
vague  and  halting  considerations  which  give  the  speaker 
the  air  of  a  man  who  is  blindfolded,  and  strikes  at  random ; 
none  of  those  perplexing  exordiums  wherein  every  conceiv- 
able fancy  is  brought  to  bear  upon  a  single  idea,  and  which 
frequently  elicit  the  remark,  'What  is  he  driving  at?  What 
topic  is  he  going  to  discuss  ? '  Let  the  subject  matter  be 
vigorously  stated  at  the  outset,  so  that  it  may  rivet  the 
minds  and  engage  the  attention  of  the  audience."  ^ 

It  is  true  that  in  the  meditative  discourse,  especially  recom- 
mended by  Fenelon,  in  which  the  thought  develops  itself 
from  within,  and  flows  along  in  the  more  hidden  currents 
of  a  contemplative  mind,  the  discourse  would  cease  alto- 
gether to  flow,  where  it  was  confined  in  the  strict  bounds 
of  a  proposition.  In  such  a  discourse  the  proposition  is 
not  formall}'^  announced,  but  rather  is  suggested  through 
the  whole  course  of  the  sermon.  It  dawns  upon  the 
hearer  out  of  the  apparent  obscurity  of  the  discussion, 
like  the  gradual  light  of  day.  Such  a  style  of  sermon 
requires  a  peculiar  theme  and  a  peculiar  genius ;  and  in 
unskilful  hands,  and  from  a  mind  not  in  the  highest  degree 
spiritual,  if  it  were  very  commonly  adopted,  it  would  be 
disastrous  to  profitable  and  impressive  teaching  in  the 
pulpit. 

The  significance  and  importance  of  the  proposition  to 
the  strength  and  beauty  of  the  discourse  cannot  be  better 
illustrated  than  in  the  familiar  example  of  the  tree.  If  the 
argument  forms  the  branches,  the  proposition  forms  the 
trunk,  and  the  text  the  root.  How  can  there  be  a  tree 
without  a  trunk,  or  a  discourse  w^ithout  a  proposition  ?    The 

'  The  Clergy  and  the  Pulpit,  p.  118. 

13 


146  PREACHING. 

trunk,  before  it  disparts  itself  into  divisions,  is  narrow, 
rigid,  fixed ;  it  is  not  the  graceful  part  of  the  tree  ;  it  is 
not,  apparently,  the  living  part  of  the  tree  ;  but  how  could 
there  be  an}'  life  or  grace  without  it?  The  proposition  is 
just  this  definite,  unyielding,  all-comprehending  part  of  the 
sermon ;  the  strength  of  the  discourse  is  bound  up  in  it ; 
all  the  life  of  the  sermon  runs  through  it  to  the  minutest 
extremity,  while  it  draws  its  life  immediately  from  the  text, 
or  the  divine  word.  As  one  tree  has  generally  one  trunk 
and  one  character,  and  bears  one  kind  of  fruit  and  leaf, 
and  is  distinguished  from  all  other  trees,  so  one  sermon 
should  have  one  subject  and  one  aim.  Dr.  Emmons  was 
of  this  opinion.  He  says  of  himself,  "  For  this  reason  I 
seldom  preached  textually,  but  chose  my  subject  in  the  first 
place,  and  then  chose  a  text  adapted  to  the  subject.  This 
enabled  me  to  make  my  sermons  more  simple,  homogene- 
ous, and  pointed,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  sei-ved  to 
confine  the  hearers'  attention  to  one  important  leading  sen- 
timent. Those  who  preach  textually  are  obliged  to  follow 
the  text  in  all  its  branches,  which  often  lead  to  different 
and  unconnected  subjects.  Hence,  by  the  time  the  preacher 
has  gone  through  all  the  branches  of  the  text,  his  sermon 
will  become  so  complicated  that  no  hearer  can  carry  away 
any  more  of  it  than  a  few  striking,  unconnected  expres- 
sions ;  whereas,  by  the  opposite  mode  of  preaching,  the 
hearer  may  be  master  of  the  whole  discourse,  which  hangs 
together  like  a  fleece  of  wool"  ^ 

Although  we  cannot  agree  with  Dr.  Emmons's  view  of 
textual  preaching,  and  of  selecting  a  subject  before  a  text, 
it  is  well  to  have  his  positive  views  upon  the  matter  of  a 
proposition. 

Whatever  may  be  true  of  a  composition  to  be  read,  a 
sjpoken  address  needs  some  distinct  proposition  to  speak 
upon ;  the  speaker  needs  it  to  give  him  concentration,  and 


'  Park's  Life  of  Emmons,  p.  274. 


§  14.       THE   PROPOSITION.  147 

the  majority  of  hearers,  also,  who  do  not  or  cannot  make 
accurate  discriminations,  need  to  have  something  definite 
before  them. 

As  to  the  substance  or  matter  of  the  proposition,  there  are 
some  rules  to  be  observed. 

1.  There  should  be  a  unity  of  the  parts  of  the  proposition 
with  the  whole.  The  unity  of  the  sermon  depends  upon  the 
unity  of  the  subject,  and  the  subject  is  one  which  can  be 
stated  in  a  single  proposition.  There  may  be  different 
parts,  and  widely  distinct  parts,  of  the  subject  discussed, 
but  still  they  should  all  be  comprehended,  or  be  capable 
of  being  stated,  in  one  more  general  subject ;  as,  (1.)  Where 
the  proposition  has  several  subordinate  parts;  e.  g.,  "The 
means  of  spiritual  growth" — («.)  communion  with  God, 
(6.)  cultivation  of  the  affections,  (c.)  active  service,  &c. 
(2.)  Where  there  is  a  general  predicate  of  the  coordinate 
parts  of  one  whole;  e.  g.,  "The  nature,  design,  and  impor- 
tance of  prayer."  It  is  evident  here  that  the  last  is  the 
main  idea,  or  the  general  predicate  of  all,  and  the  discus- 
sion of  the  others  should  tend  to  the  confirmation  of  the 
last.  (3.)  Where  there  are  other  topics  of  inquiry,  xohich 
the  proposition  fairly  leads  to.  Thus,  having  established 
the  proposition  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  visible  church, 
we  may  go  on  to  show  our  relations  to  it,  and  its  relations 
to  us  and  to  other  men. 

2.  Tlie  proposition  should  be  plainly  involved  or  implied 
in  the  text.  Its  great  beauty  is  to  correspond  with  the  mean- 
ing and  spirit  of  the  text.  No  theme  other  than  that  which 
finds  its  ground  in  the  text  should  be  employed.  Often  the 
text  is  the  theme  pure ;  it  would  be  pedantical  in  such  a 
case  to  use  any  terms  other  than  those  of  the  text ;  but  it 
is  generally  necessary  to  bring  what  lies  in  the  text  into 
one  particular  point  of  view.  A  sermon  has  been  called 
an  ellipse  with  two  points  —  text  and  theme.  This  ellipse 
should  be  as  perfect  as  possible.  Sometimes  the  proposi- 
tion is  too  wide  for  the  text;    as  John  14:  13  —  subject, 


148  PREACHING. 

"Prayer  :  "  ''And  whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  my  name,  that 
will  I  do,  that  the  Father  may  be  glorified  in  the  Son;" 
whereas  the  true,  limited  subject  of  the  passage  is,  "Prayer 
ill  the  name  of  Jesus."  ^  Sometimes,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  proposition  may  be  too  narrow  for  the  theme ;  as  Eph. 
4:  25  —  subject,  "  Truthfuhiess  : "  "  Wherefore ,  putting  away 
lying,  speah  every  man  truth  tvitli  his  neighbor;  for  we  are 
members  one  of  another.''''  But  the  true  theme  is,  "The 
duty  of  truthfuhiess,  as  made  obligatory  by  the  member- 
ship of  Christ."  The  same  text  may  also  have  different 
sides  to  it,  and  may  suggest  quite  different  themes ;  all  that 
we  should  be  careful  for  is,  that  the  theme  is  truly  grounded 
in  the  text.  Sometimes  we  cannot  find  a  text  which  corre- 
sponds precisely  to  our  subject ;  the  proposition  should  then 
be  made  as  identical  as  possible,  and  we  may  be  obliged  to 
use  a  general  text  in  preaching  on  a  particular  theme,  and 
so  vice  versa. 

3.  The  proposition  should  include,  essentially,  all  that  is 
to  be  discussed  in  the  sermon;  no  less  and  no  more.  The 
proposition  is  comprehended  in  the  text,  and  the  sermon  in 
the  proposition ;  one  should  therefore  endeavor  to  make 
every  word  in  the  proposition  suggestive  of  the  sermon. 
The  sermon  or  discussion  is  contained  in  the  proposition 
as  parts  in  a  whole.  The  proposition  is  a  handle  of  the 
sermon,  to  take  it  all  up  together,  and  a  rudder  of  the 
sermon,  to  guide  it  in  its  definite  course  of  thought.  In 
a  doctrinal  sermon,  especially,  the  proposition  should  be 
restricted  to  exactly  what  is  discussed,  except  when  a  spe- 
cial advantage  is  to  be  gained  by  a  connected  view  of  the 
relations  of  doctrines ;  therefore  we  should  strive  to  make 
the  proposition  as  wide  and  comprehensive  as  we  wish  to 
make  the  discussion  itself. 

As  to  the  structure  and  qualities  of  the  proposition,  the 
general  idea  of  a  good  proposition  is,  that  it  should  be,  — 

'  Hagenbach's  HomileticS. 


§  14.      THE   PROPOSITION.  149 

1.  Plain  and  simple.  It  should  be  as  plain  and  simple 
as  possible,  without  being  commonplace.  This  simplicity 
of  form  may  be  violated,  («.)  By  too  scientific  and  philo- 
sophical a  statement  of  the  theme.  It  should,  on  the  con- 
trary, be  as  concrete  and  popular  as  possible.  Abstract 
and  singular  themes  characterized  the  preaching  of  the 
eighteenth  centur}'' ;  thus  one  of  Reinhard's  themes  for  a 
sermon  was,  "Upon  the  habit  of  the  human  mind  to  be 
indifferent  towards  a  long  and  earnestly  desired  good,  when 
the  moment  of  possession  comes."  (6.)  By  too  metaphori- 
cal a  form,  except  when  the  text  itself  is  a  figure.  Figure 
in  a  proposition  is  sometimes  beautiful ;  such  as  "  Christ 
the  good  shepherd,"  "  Christ  the  rock  of  ages."  But  this 
last  form  of  typifying  the  Saviour  has  been  carried  to  an 
extravagant  pitch ;  and  German  preachers  have  preached 
upon  "  Christ  a  carpenter,"  "  a  hat-maker,"  "  a  tailor,"  and 
"a  clucking  hen."^  Anything  fanciful  in  the  proposition 
is  peculiarly  out  of  place ;  for  if  plain,  strong  common 
sense  should  appear  anywhere,  it  is  in  the  propqsition ; 
there  may  be  carving  and  ornament  in  other  parts  of  the 
vessel,  but  we  want  the  rudder  to  be  made  of  oak  and  iron. 

2.  Neat  and  condensed.  This  is  for  its  easier  use  and 
remembrance.  All  unnecessary  synonymes  and  weakening 
qualifications  are  to  be  avoided  in  the  proposition.  Com- 
pactness is  an  especial  good  quality.  Any  superfluous  dis- 
junctions, such  as  "or,"  "notwithstanding,"  "nevertheless," 
"so  far  forth,"  &c.,  should  be  dispensed  with,  and  neat 
strength  should  be  sought  for.  "  In  point  of  intensity,  the 
proposition  should  rather  fall  below  than  fully  express  the 
idea  of  the  sermon."^  The  proposition  may  sometimes 
comprehend  in  itself  the  divisions  of  the  sermon,  and  an- 
nounce them,  thus  making  all  the  merely  mechanical  parts 
of  the  sermon  as  compact  as  possible ;  and  this,  perhaps, 
is  the  best  way,  generally,  to  construct  a  proposition.     The 

'  Hagenbach.  *  Professor  Phelps. 

13* 


150  PREACHING. 

proposition  may  also  consist  of  the  grand  divisions  them- 
selves. There  may  be  several  propositions ;  these  form 
parts  of  one  subject :  coming  one  after  another,  they  thus 
gradually  develop  the  entire  thought,  subject,  or  compre- 
hensive proposition. 

3.  Specific.  Even  the  unity  of  the  proposition  must  be 
sometimes  sacrificed  to  attain  this  particularity  of  theme. 
The  discussion  of  specific  subjects  —  of  the  species  under 
the  genus,  of  the  particular  under  the  general  —  is  indicative 
of  an  acute  mind.  The  more  restricted  a  proposition  is, 
the  smaller  portion  of  a  truth  discussed,  if  ably  discussed, 
the  more  intensity  of  interest  w^ill  be  aroused,  and  the  more 
impression  for  good  will  be  made.  Where  difiereut  kinds 
of  propositions  ofler  themselves,  then,  the  more  specific  one 
is  to  be  preferred ;  and  every  proposition  should  express  a 
definite  and  complete  idea. 

4.  It  should  not  be  stated  in  the  language  of  the  text. 
There  should  be  a  fresh  form  given  to  it;  and  although 
drawn  immediately  from  the  text,  it  should,  if  possible, 
present  some  new  form  or  aspect  of  the  old  truth.  An 
exception  to  this  rule  is,  where  the  text  is  itself  proposi- 
tional  in  form,  and  makes  a  complete  theme,  as  in  that 
noblest  and  profoundest  text  in  the  Bible,  "'For  God  is 
love:' 

5.  It  should  be  prudently  expressed.  It  should  not  lay 
out  too  large  a  subject,  or  present  it  in  too  ambitious  a 
way;  e.  g.,  "I  shall  prove  in  this  sermon  the  doctrine  of 
total  depravity."  Neither  should  it  be  in  a  paradoxical 
form,  which  always  carries  with  it  something  of  a  vain  or 
egotistic  air. 

6.  It  should  be  varied.  Let  there  be  no  stereotyped  way 
of  stating  the  subject.  Sometimes  it  is  well  to  keep  the 
main  proposition  in  the  background,  and  at  other  times  to 
let  it  be  the  first  word  uttered,  the  first  thing  announced. 
As  a  rare  exception,  there  may  be  through  the  whole  ser- 
mon no  definite  statement  of  the  subject,  but  it  may  be  left 


§  15.      THE   DIVISION.  151 

to  be  gathered  by  the  hearer.  As  a  rule,  however,  rarely 
to  be  departed  from,  there  should  be  a  clear  and  specific 
statement  made  of  what  one  is  intending  to  discuss. 

In  concluding  this  subject,  the  distinct  warning  should 
be  repeated,  that  the  propositional  form  belongs  almost  ex- 
clusively to  the  didactic  discourse,  and  should  not,  there- 
fore, be  invariably  followed.  It  presujjposes  the  synthetic 
method  of  treatment.  It  requires  that  a  distinct  topic 
should  be  drawn  from  the  text,  gathering  up  and  combining 
all  the  ideas  of  the  text  in  a  definite  form,  and  then  that  the 
sermon  should  be  built,  not  upon  the  text,  but  upon  the 
proposition.  This  has  been  our  usual  New  England  method 
of  preaching,  which  has  come  down,  in  fact,  from  the  earli- 
est Protestant  preachers ;  ^  and  it  is  not  to  be  rashly  given 
up,  for  it  is  admirably  adapted  to  popular  instruction  ;  but, 
as  has  been  often  urged,  a  return  to  a  simpler  and  more 
direct  method  of  preaching  from  the  word  of  God,  and  not 
from  a  human  proposition  which  is  drawn  from  it,  would 
be  healthful. 

§  15.     The  Division. 

The  fact  of  having  formal  divisions  in  a  sermon,  and  the 
character  of  these  divisions,  are  influenced,  of  course,  by  the 
kind  of  discussion  which  a  subject  may  require  or  assume ; 
since  a  certain  principle  of  division  is  applicable  to  the  pecu- 
liar character  of  the  individual  sermon.  Thus  the  sermon 
may  assume  the  logical,  or  the  inferential,  or  the  subjective, 
or  the  textual  form  ;  each  requiring  its  peculiar  divisions. 

The  logical  form  of  discussion  proceeds  in  a  regular 
method  of  reasoning,  by  a  series  of  connected  propositions 
or  divisions,  each  of  which  is  true  because  the  one  that  pre- 
cedes it  is  true ;  and  all  of  these  tend  to  some  general 
proposition  or  result.     This  form  of  discussion,  it  is  evi- 

^  Vinet's  Hist,  de  la  Predication  des  EefOrmes,  etc.,  p.  599. 


152  PREACHmO. 

dent,  absolutely  requires  divisions.  It  needs  a  clear  state- 
Ebent  of  the  proofs,  or,  at  least,  of  each  successive  part  of 
the  argument,  and  of  the  connections  of  these  parts.  It 
should  resemble,  in  lucidness  of  division  and  statement,  a 
problem  of  Euclid. 

The  inferential  form  of  discussion,  in  distinction  from 
the  logical,  consists  in  a  series  of  independent  inferences, 
or  observations,  drawn  from  the  subject,  expanding  the 
theme  into  its  various  relations  and  applications.  It  is 
sometimes,  though  rather  awkwardly,  called  "  observational 
preaching,^^  —  a  very  common  method,  because  so  easy. 
The  objection  to  it  is  its  easiness.  One  may  foil  into  a 
loose  and  inconsequential  style  of  remark,  without  close 
thought.  Divisions  here  are  merely  the  clear  marking  of 
each  new  observation  or  new  thought,  which  if  not  so 
marked  might  lead  to  tedious  confusion.  This  kind  of  dis- 
cussion demands,  perhaps,  the  more  care  in  its  divisional 
arrangement  from  its  very  facility  and  tendency  to  common- 
place remark.  F.  W.  Robertson's  sermons  abound  in  infer- 
ences ;  but  they  generally  come  in  after  an  argumentative 
discussion,  when  he  introduces  a  number  of  distinct  and 
interesting  observations.  He  mingles  the  logical  and  infer- 
ential form  of  sermon,  which  is  a  good  method.  Having 
thoughtfully  set  forth  a  particular  idea,  he  draws  remarks 
from  it,  and  then  proceeds  to  another  part  of  the  subject. 
This  is  illustrated  in  his  sermon  on  "  The  Star  in  the  East," 
Second  Series. 

The  subjective  form  of  discussion  almost  defies  divisions, 
and  scorns  regular  methods.  It  wanders  "at  its  ow^n  sweet 
will."  It  is  more  liable  to  run  into  the  essay  style,  and  lose 
the  form  of  direct  address,  than  the  logical  or  inferential 
modes ;  and  yet  even  a  meditative  discourse  should  be  some- 
what amenable  to  the  laws  of  method. 

The  textual  form  of  discussion,  following  the  very  terms 
of  the  text,  has  and  can  have  no  very  regular  or  formal 
divisions.     But  still,  each  distinct  point  or  idea  of  the  text 


§  15.      THE   DIVISION.  153 

should  be  properly  marked  by  some  division,  else  even  an 
expository  sermon  becomes  a  tangled  skein. 

We  thus  see  that  regular  divisions  belong  to  the  logical 
or  argumentative  style  of  sermon  more  fitly  than  to  any 
other  ;  and  yet,  that  all  kinds  of  sermons  demand  something 
like  "divisions,"  which  clearly  mark  or  set  forth  the  differ- 
ent steps  of  the  discourse. 

W7iat  are  the  divisions  of  a  sermon  ? 

They  are  the  different  parts  in  which  the  main  proposi- 
tion or  subject  is  formally  separated  and  discussed.  They 
do  not  refer  to  the  free  and  actual  development  of  a  sub- 
ject so  much  as  to  the  special  points  of  view  in  which  the 
proposition  is  to  be  held  up  and  regarded.  They  give  a 
rapid  and  condensed  aspect  of  the  whole  subject  in  its  vari- 
ous parts,  and  thus  the  better  enable  the  hearer  to  follow 
the  thread  of  the  discourse,  or  the  ramifications  of  the  argu- 
ment. They  form  the  chart  of  the  discourse,  which  he  is  to 
hold  in  his  hand.  More  than  any  other  part,  they  mark  the 
plan  of  the  sermon ;  they  are  more  important  to  the  plan 
than  is  any  other  portion. 

As  to  the  utility  of  divisions :  — 

1.  They  promote  variety  in  unity.  They  do  not  promote 
mere  variety,  for  while  they  seem  to  separate,  they  really 
bind  together,  in  a  flexible  but  strong  chain,  the  whole  dis- 
course. The  articulations  and  joints  of  the  human  body  do 
not  destroy  its  unity,  but  belong  to  one  system,  one  organ- 
ized life.  Thus  all  tlie  groups  of  ideas  implied  in  divisions 
and  subdivisions  are  referred  to  some  common  centre  of 
life  ;  and  they  are  not  merely  artificial  divisions  ;  they  have 
some  good  reason  for  them,  bearing  upon  the  true  power 
of  the  sermon.  A  just  classification  of  the  various  ideas 
or  aspects  of  a  subject  implies  some  general  law  of  unity 
which  binds  them  vitally  together. 

2.  They  promote  clearness.     Feudlon  has  made  an  objec- 


154  PREACHING. 

tion  to  the  use  of  divisions,  because,  he  says,  they  were  de- 
rived originally  from  the  schoolmen ;  but  even  if  they  were 
thus  derived,  if,  withal,  they  are  valuable,  there  is  no  reason 
why  they  should  not  be  used.  Natural  divisions  of  a  dis- 
course are  older  than  the  schoolmen  ;  they  spring  from  the 
nature  of  things.  Good  divisions  are  nothing  more  than  the 
clear  analysis  of  any  given  theme  of  thought.  They  break 
it  up  into  its  component  parts  or  specific  ideas ;  and  this 
analytic  process,  when  not  carried  into  hair-splitting,  aids 
the  clear  understanding  of  the  subject.  It  assists  the  hearer 
to  follow  the  road  which  the  discussion  takes ;  and  he  can- 
not entirely  lose  his  way,  even  if  he  should  be  for  a  time 
thrown  out.  It  also  prevents  the  sermon  from  becoming  a 
mass  of  incoherent  and  confused  matter. 

3.  They  iwomote  the  progress  of  the  discussion.  Good 
divisions  enable  the  writer  to  step  easily  from  a  lower  to 
a  higher  level  of  the  subject.  They  mark  the  logical  as 
well  as  the  natural  advancement  of  thought,  and  prevent  it 
from  becoming  retrogressive  or  rotary.  They  thus  keep  the 
sermon,  or  rather  the  preacher,  from  wasting  his  power; 
they  enable  every  thought  to  have  its  due  weight ;  they 
prevent  repetition.  Good  divisions  are,  in  fact,  the  result 
of  clear  thinking.  They  themselves  often  constitute  in- 
trinsically much  of  the  beauty  and  power  of  the  discourse. 
"Aptness  to  seize  the  principle  of  division,  and  to  effect  the 
division  correctly  and  fully  under  it,  perhaps  more  than  any 
other  specific  capability,  marks  the  degree  of  ability  in  the 
construction  of  a  discourse."  ' 

4.  They  refresh  the  mind  and  memory  both  of  the  speaker 
and  hearer.  They  introduce  breaks  ;  they  enable  the  mind 
to  repose  a  moment,  and  take  a  view  of  the  field,  to  recall 
what  has  gone  before,  to  note  the  progress  which  has  been 
made,  and  to  look  forward  to  what  is  to  come.  The  mind 
rests  in  the  trench  in  which  it  is  working  its  way  up  to  the 

'  Day's  Art  of  Discourse,  p.  86. 


§  15.       THE   DIVISION.  155 

stronghold,  looking  both  backward  and  forward.  Divisions 
also  tend  to  keep  up  the  attention  and  interest  in  the  hear- 
er's mind,  to  prevent  its  weariness,  and  to  assist  in  guiding 
its  thought. 

As  to  the  numher  of  divisions,  the  principle  should  be 
strongly  laid  down  that  there  should  be  as  few  divisions  as 
possible.  Divisions  tend  to  make  a  discourse  stiff;  for  the 
sermon  should  be  a  living  growth  from  the  text,  a  life  rather 
than  a  work.  All  mechanical  and  artificial  divisions  should 
therefore  be  avoided,  nay,  more,  contemned.  The  number 
of  divisions,  however,  is  governed,  as  we  have  seen,  very 
much  by  the  nature  of  the  subject  itself.  A  very  simple 
subject  requires  but  few  divisions.  The  more  a  subject  will 
bear  analyzing,  of  course  the  more  of  division,  separation, 
and  classification  of  ideas  is  needed.  A  difficult  theologi- 
cal theme  may  sometimes  require  many  divisions,  and  even 
subdivisions. 

There  should  be  no  arbitrary  number  of  divisions ;  and, 
indeed,  it  is  puerile  to  multiply  divisions  merely  for  the 
sake  of  doing  so,  and  of  giving  a  logical  air  to  a  sermon. 
This  is  not  the  way  wise  men  talk.  Different  forms  of 
stating  the  same  thing  do  not  demand  different  divisions. 
One  should  never  introduce  a  new  division  unless  it  is  abso- 
lutely required  in  order  to  make  the  sense  plainer,  and  to 
mark  the  progress  of  thought.  Dr.  Fitch  thinks  that,  as  a 
general  rule,  three  principal  divisions  are  enough  for  a  ser- 
mon. He  takes  as  a  model  for  the  sacred  oration,  the  ora- 
tion of  Cicero  "I^r'O  Lege  Manilla  "  in  which  the  orator  has 
one  design  in  a  threefold  division  :  "  You  must  choose  a 
general ;  you  must  choose  an  able  general ;  you  must  choose 
Cneius  Pompeius." 

As  to  the  sources  and  qualities  of  divisions:  — 
1.  Divisions  should  correspond  to  the  nature  of  the  subject. 
This  rule  forbids  all  stereotyped   character   of   divisions. 


156  l^REACHINa. 

There  may  be,  as  we  have  seen,  the  logical,  or  the  rhetori- 
cal, or  the  textual  discussion,  each  of  which  requires  its 
own  style  of  divisional  treatment.  The  text  itself  may 
often  point  out  its  own  divisions  far  better  than  any  which 
could  be  devised ;  but  this  will  be  more  particularly  noticed 
under  the  head  of  Development. 

2.  Divisions  should  be  made  to  comprehend  or  exhaust 
the  contents  of  the  main  proposition.  This  is  the  law  of 
completeness  in  divisions  ;  and  as  to  the  main  divisions  of 
the  discourse,  it  is  absolutely  essential.^  Divisions  are  to 
the  proposition  what  the  proposition  is  to  the  text.  As  the 
proposition  aims  to  exhaust  the  text,  divisions  aim  to  take 
up  into  them  the  whole  meaning  and  contents  of  the  propo- 
sition, and  to  unfold  the  whole  substance  of  the  thought 
comprehended  in  it.  Limit  the  proposition  itself,  rather 
than  have  it  overrun  the  divisions.  Divisions  may,  indeed, 
sometimes  comprise  the  proposition  itself,  presenting  it  in 
diiferent  fragments  or  parts,  which  together  form  the  gen- 
eral theme.  Thus  one  of  Nettleton's  sermons  —  subject, 
1.  The  departing  prodigal;  2.  The  returning  prodigal; 
without  any  other  general  proposition. 

3.  Divisions  should  be  governed  by  a  law  of  unity  which 
requires  that  each  division  suggest  or  bear  vital  relation  to 
the  proposition.  There  can  be  no  true  theme  which  does 
not  comprise  one  generic  truth,  or  one  class  of  truths,  so 
that  all  its  subordinate  parts  are  but  specific  divisions  of 
one  general  truth,  and  bear  common  relations  to  it.  "The 
theme  in  division  is  ever  a  class  ;  and  its  parts  are  denoted 
by  the  terms  species,  varieties,  individuals."  ^  This  sub- 
ject, or  theme,  is,  of  course,  made  up  of  its  own  various 
attributes,  bound  together  by  a  common  law  of  identity ; 
and  in  division,  this  common  principle  of  the  relation  of 
the  specific  parts  to  the  generic  whole  should  be  strictly 
observed.     No  other  principle  of  division  should  be  intro- 

^  Day's  Art  of  Discourse,  p.  89.  '^  Idem,  p.  83. 


§  15.       THE   DIVISION.  157 

duced,  thus  causing  confusion  of  ideas ;  and  only  those 
divisions  which  belong  to  this  single  class  of  ideas  set  forth 
in  the  theme  should  be  introduced.^  No  new  classification 
of  ideas  should  arise  under  a  proposition  which  suggests 
one  specific  class  of  ideas,  or  one  peculiar  kind  of  attributes. 
To  speak  more  generally,  the  one  comprehensive  and  char- 
acteristic thought  of  the  proposition  should  be  reproduced 
in  all  the  divisions,  and  ever}'  division  should  bear  a  neces- 
sary and  living  relation  to  this  one  thought,  although  the 
particular  points  treated  of  in  each  division  may  be  quite 
dissimilar  as  regards  each  other.  And  the  division  may  not 
always  distinctly  express  the  matter  of  the  proposition,  but 
may  only  suggest  it ;  yet  it  should  promote  the  general 
result,  and  the  great  moral  truth  or  idea  of  the  proposition 
should  run  through  every  division.  It  should  be  seen  that 
there  is  but  one  bearing  to  all  parts.  The  subordinate  parts 
should  not  efface  the  principal  part,  but  all  the  divisions 
should  be  such  as  will  conduce  to  the  carrying  out  of  the 
principal  idea. 

4.  One  division  should  not  anticipate  or  include  the  suc- 
ceeding one.  The  distinction  which  separate's  the  division 
should  be  real ;  and  that  which  enters  into  one  idea,  or 
forms  part  of  it,  should  not  be  made  the  theme  of  a  sep- 
arate division.  Ideas  which  have  a  very  near  relation  to 
each  other  should  not  form  distinct  divisions.  There  should 
be  no  blending  or  confounding  of  subordinate  parts.  If  a 
new  part,  division,  or  thought  is  introduced,  it  should  be 
something-  really  new  and  distinct ;  for  nothing  weakens  a 
discourse  so  much  as  a  confusion  and  repetition  of  ideas. 

5.  Divisions  should  prepare  the  way  for  something  to  come. 
There  should  be  progress  in  them.  Yet,  while  they  look 
forward  to  something  more  to  come,  they  should  not  antici- 
pate results,  which  are  reserved  for  the  development  of  the 
sermon,  and  especially  for  the  conclusion.     They  should 

^  Day's  Art  of  Discourse,  p.  84. 

14 


158  PREACHING. 

not  hinder  or  break  the  contmuous  and  free  movement  of 
the  discourse  ;  they  should  rather  aid  it. 

6.  Divisions  belonging  to  the  same  class  should  he  similar 
to  each  other  in  form.  This  gives  a  neat  finish  to  the  ser- 
mon, and  promotes  unity. 

In  regard  to  the  composition  of  divisions,  which  is  simply 
the  art  of  bringing  into  one  view  the  several  elements  of  a 
given  subject,  or  separating  it  into  its  component  parts,  we 
may,  in  order  to  obtain  just  divisions  of  our  theme,  — 

1.  Divide  the  whole  general  subject  or  proposition  into 
two  or  several  particular  propositions.  These  may  be  dis- 
tinct, but  true  parts  of  one  theme. 

2.  Separate  the  genus  into  its  difFerent  species.  The 
truths  of  Scripture  are  usually  given  in  a  generic  form, 
and  they  are  thus  capable  of  almost  endless  specification 
and  illustration. 

3.  View  the  truth  in  its  various  appropriate  relations  or 
bearings  to  other  truths.  One  may  be  obliged  to  do  this  in 
order  to  eliminate  the  particular  truth  in  hand,  and  make  it 
stand  out  clear  in  its  own  proper  place  in  the  field  of  rela- 
tive truth. 

4.  Marshal  and  discuss  the  principal  proofs  or  arguments 
of  the  theme  in  hand.  A  truth  of  Scripture  stands  on  its 
own  ground  of  inspired  authority ;  but  even  this  may  be 
strengthened  and  confirmed  by  reasoning. 

5.  Exhibit  the  grand  motives  of  any  given  duty  or  propo- 
sition, including  such  duty. 

6.  Illustrate  the  fact  or  duty  involved  in  the  subject  in 
various  practical  ways  and  observations ;  or,  in  brief,  divis- 
ions may  proceed   by   Classification,  Analysis,  Relations, 

Proofs,  Motives,  Illustration.^ 
'* 
'  The  sources  of  divisions,  according  to  rhetoricians,  are  manifold.  One 
writer,  for  example,  states  sixteen  of  them.  We  would  refer  the  reader,  for 
different  kinds  of  divisions  which  may  be  employed,  especially  in  the  textual 
sermon,  and  which  are  useful  for  reference  in  composing  a  sermon,  to  Kid- 
der's Homiletics,  p.  201. 


§  15.       THE   DIVISIOX.  159 

In  the  order  or  arrangement  of  divisions,  the  general 
principle  is,  that  they  should  proceed  according  to  the  neces- 
sity of  the  subject,  or  the  law  of  arrangement  which  a  partic- 
ular subject  contains  within  itself  when  evolved  by  thought ; 
or,  more  specifically,  (1.)  By  an  order  of  logical  necessity, 
as  the  discussion  of  the  nature  of  the  subject,  and  then  of 
its  circumstances  and  proofs,  or  of  its  rvhat,  how,  and  why. 
(2.)  By  an  order  of  inherent  dignity  or  value  of  ideas.  This 
may  be  called  the  natural  order.  (3.)  By  an  order  of  time; 
e.  g.,  reason.  Scripture,  experience,  would  be  generally  the 
best  order,  because  Scripture  includes  reason,  and  experi- 
ence, reason  and  Scripture.  The  order  of  cause  and  efl'ect 
would  come  under  this  principle.  (4.)  Order  of  jjrogressive 
strength  of  argument.  We  should  advance  from  the  weaker 
to  the  stronger  argument ;  or,  one  may  begin  with  the  strong 
and  end  with  the  strong,  putting  the  weaker  arguments  in 
the  middle.  (5.)  Order  of  ]jrogress  from  the  abstract  to 
the  concrete — from  d  priori  to  a  poste7'iori — from  arbitrary 
ideas  to  the  realized  consciousness  of  these  in  fact  and  expe- 
rience. (6.)  Order  of  ^^ersowaZ  interest.  Those  thoughts 
and  facts  which  most  nearly  concern  our  hearers  themselves 
come  with  more  force  last — God,  the  church,  j^ourselves. 
One  should  so  arrange  his  divisions  as  to  secure  progressive 
interest  and  moral  impression ;  he  should  bear  down  on  th« 
individual  conscience  and  heart. 

As  was  said  of  the  proposition,  each  division  should  be 
plain  and  perspicuous  ;  should  be  clearly  cut ;  should  give 
complete  sense  by  itself;  should  not  be  too  commonplace  or 
easy ;  and  it  should  be  so  announced  as  best  to  promote  the 
clear  progress  of  the  discussion,  and  its  remembrance  by 
the  audience. 

As  to  the  utility  of  numbering  divisions,  the  tendency  is 
certainly,  at  the  present  time,  not  to  announce  divisions 
numerically.  But  if  it  were  not  a  paradox  to  say  so,  wo 
think  a  numerical  division  is  useful  when  it  is  needed ;  that 


160  PREACHING. 

is,  when  it  makes  more  plain  the  discussion  of  a  truth.  U 
a  sermon  is  to  iiicle  thought,  or  to  amuse  an  audience,  then, 
by  all  means,  omit  the  formality  of  numbers  ;  yet  if  divis- 
ions are  useful  at  all,  it  may  be  sometimes  useful  to  number 
them,  and  the  subject  itself  may  demand  it.  But  the  num- 
bering impairs  freedom,  and  imparts  a  formal  character  to  a 
discourse  ;  therefore  we  think  it  best  never  to  number  divis- 
ions, or,  wdiat  is  the  same  thing,  actually  to  announce  the 
number  of  divisions,  unless  numbers  are  absolutely  needed 
to  make  the  discourse  more  memorable  and  useful ;  for, 
as  says  Quintilian,  "division  diminishes  the  appearance  of 
strength."^  Let  all  the  connections  of  a  discourse,  there- 
fore, be  made  as  neatly  as  possible,  and  let  the  jointures  be 
concealed,  as  Nature  conceals  them.  The  more  intelligent 
the  audience,  the  less  necessity  of  formal  numerical  state- 
ments of  divisions  at  all. 

As  to  the  jplace  or  time  of  announcing  divisions,  this  may 
be  either  before  the  discussion,  during  its  progress,  or  at 
its  close.  The  last  was  frequently  Luther's  mode.  Gener- 
ally speaking,  it  is  best  to  announce  divisions  at  the  begin- 
ning, especially  if  the  sermon  is  of  a  topical  character. 
While  a  cultivated  taste  would  prefer  never  formally  to 
announce  divisions,  utility  is  to  be  placed  before  taste  in 
sermonizing. 

§  16.    The  Development. 

The  development  of  the  sermon  is  the  whole  hody  of  it 
as  related  severally  to  the  text,  the  subject ,  the  proposition , 
and  the  divisions.  These  originate,  mark,  and  limit  the 
development. 

The  development,  in  other  Avords,  is  the  carrying  out  and 
tilling  up  of  the  plan,  even  as  the  divisions  are  the  carrying 
out  of  the  proposition,  and  the  proposition  of  the  text.  It 
is  the  actual  treatment  of  the  theme  in  hand,  the  free  and 


1  Instit.,  B.  II.,  c.  12,  8.  3. 


§  16.       THE    DEVELOPMENT.  161 

living  current  of  thonght,  sentiment,  and  remark,  after  the 
definite  subject  and  the  general  outline  of  treatment  have 
been  designated.  The  word  ''body"  expresses  what  is 
meant  by  the  development  better  than  any  other  word. 

The  general  character  of  the  development  of  a  discourse 
is  decided  chiefly  by  the  character  of  the  subject,  although 
the  object,  or  the  main  purpose  we  have  in  view,  has  also 
its  influence.  We  have  alluded  already,  in  treating  of 
divisions,  to  the  diflerent  forms  of  discussion  which  a  theme 
may  assume ;  we  would  now  notice  these  a  little  more  care- 
fully. The  principal  modes  of  discussion,  in  relation  to  the 
real  development  of  a  sermon,  are  fourfold  :  the  Expository, 
the  Illustrative,  the  Argumentative,  and  the  Persuasive. 

1.  Expository  development.  The  expository  sermon  con- 
stitutes, as  has  been  often  said,  perhaps  the  most  genuine 
and  primitive  method  of  preaching,  for  it  confines  itself  to 
setting  forth  the  meaning  of  Scripture,  "the  ideas  of  God." 
It  ends  in  making  a  passage  of  Scripture  plain  to  the  hear- 
ers' mind  and  heart.  Expository  sermons  may  be  of  two 
kinds  :  (a.)  A  simple  exposition  of  the  several  clauses  of  a 
passage  of  Scripture  in  their  order.  This  is  useful  when 
the  portion  of  Scripture  is  fragmentary,  and  afibrds  no  con- 
tinuous thread  of  argument,  and  also  when  there  are  diflS- 
culties  and  ambiguities  in  the  text  to  be  critically  explained. 
Such  sermons  may  embrace  the  exposition  of  a  single  pas- 
sage of  Scripture,  or  of  a  whole  book  of  Scripture,  in  the 
exact  order  of  its  passages.  (&.)  A  brief  setting  forth  of 
the  definite  truth  or  truths  which  the  passage  thus  exp)lained 
conveys,  especially  in  the  way  of  practical  observations  and 
lessons.  This  comes  nearer  than  the  other  mode  to  the  topi- 
cal form  of  discourse,  but  it  requires  a  lengthened  exjjosition, 
which  forms  the  body  of  the  sermon.  Chalmers's  lectures 
on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  are  fine  examples  of  this  kind 
of  expository  preaching ;  he  shows  the  connections  of  thought 
between  many  detached  passages,  and  develops  their  truth  in 
14* 


162  PREACHING. 

more  general  practical  propositions.  This  mingling  of  the 
textual  and  topical  styles  is  perhaps,  on  the  whole,  the  most 
profitable  and  instructive  method  of  preaching,  as  well  as 
the  most  popular  and  interesting.  Were  it  more  generally 
adopted,  it  would  infuse  a  new  life  into  our  preaching. 

Some  preachers  fail  to  make  expository  preaching  interest- 
ing by  their  extremely  dry  and  barren  manner  of  treating 
the  Scriptures.  They  bring  their  exegetical  process,  instead 
of  its  results,  into  the  pulpit.  In  an  article  on  expository 
preaching  in  the  New  Englander  (January,  1866),  the  writer 
says,  "In  this  kind  of  preaching  you  should  take  up  your 
subjects,  and  treat  them  in  a  free,  popular  manner,  and 
never  exegeticcdly,  as  in  the  schools.  In  your  private  study, 
and  for  your  own  benefit,  cut  and  trim  an  exegesis  as  much 
as  you  will ;  but  never  think  of  carrying  your  pruning  knife 
and  grafting  tools  into  the  desk  with  you ;  or,  if  j^ou  do, 
keep  them  out  of  sight.  Common  minds  love  to  see  good 
work  when  it  is  done,  but  they  dislike  the  labor  of  doing 
it  themselves,  and  the  tedium  of  standing  by  to  see  how 
others  do  it." 

But  the  reason  why  preachers  most  commonly  fail  in  ex- 
pository preaching  is,  that  they  do  not  put  study  enough 
into  it ;  they  do  not  give  close  thought  to  the  exegesis  of 
the  passage,  to  make  it  full  and  rich.  They  think  they  can 
"get  up"  an  expository  sermon  in  a  short  time;  whereas 
that  method,  above  all,  requires  original  investigation,  and, 
perhaps,  more  close  and  searching  study  than  any  other,  for 
in  it  there  is  less  left  to  invention. 

True  expository  preaching  is  the  most  profitable  of  all 
to  the  preacher  himself,  because  it  enriches  his  scriptural 
knowledge,  and  leads  him  deeper  into  the  word  of  God. 
It  gives  him  broader  views  of  revealed  truth,  it  teaches  him 
to  read  the  sacred  writings  in  a  connected  Avay,  and  it  fol- 
lows out  an  inspired  train  of  thought  or  argument  sometimes 
throngTi  a  whole  book.  It  prevents  him,  also,  from  mis- 
applying and  misusing  individual  texts,  by  taking  them  out 


§  16.      THE   DEVELOPMENT.  163 

of  their  right  relations.  It  lends  variety  to  preaching,  and 
does  not  shut  it  up  to  a  few  doctrinal  subjects ;  it  ranges 
through  the  broad  fields  of  the  word,  and  goes  from  theme 
to  theme,  as  the  stream  of  revelation  flows  on  throusrh  the 
varied  regions  of  divine  truth.  Expository  preaching  may 
lose  its  interest  by  being  made  too  formal,  by  becoming  too 
orderly  and  topical,  by  drawing  out  the  truths  of  a  passage 
into  propositions  too  distinct  and  rigid ;  whereas  the  mind 
of  the  preacher  should  hover  around  the  passage,  should 
recur  to  it  again  and  again,  should  (as  has  been  said)  suck 
the  sweetness  from  it  like  a  bee  ;  should,  in  ever  nearer  and 
more  penetrating  ways,  draw  out  its  life  and  exhaust  it& 
deep  and  precious  meaning.  Exhaust,  did  we  say  ?  That 
would  be  impossible  ;  for,  after  all  the  preaching,  how  much 
there  is  still  in  the  divine  word  which  is  fresh,  unexplored, 
and  almost  entirely  unknown !  Expository  preaching  also 
suggests  numberless  subjects  for  sermons.  It  gives  an  oppor- 
tunity to  remark  upon  a  great  many  themes  on  which  one 
would  not  desire  to  preach  a  whole  sermon,  and  it  also  gives 
an  opportunity  sometimes  to  administer  salutary  reproof  in 
an  indirect  way.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  most  free  and  practical 
method  of  preaching ;  it  comes  home  to  the  heart  the  quick- 
est. It  is,  above  all,  feeding  the  people  with  the  "bread  of 
life,"  with  real  biblical  nutriment,  with  that  spiritual  food 
which  all  souls  need,  and  which  this  age  and  every  age  re- 
quire. There  is  also  in  it  less  of  the  exclusively  human  ele- 
ment than  in  topical  preaching ;  the  Holy  Spirit  seems  to 
suggest  and  to  provide  the  materials  for  the  sermon.  It  is, 
therefore,  a  good  change  from  the  logical  method,  where  the 
form  often  tyrannizes  over  the  substance  ;  and  a  mingling  of 
the  two  methods  of  topical  and  expository  preaching  will 
serve  to  correct  the  false  tendencies  of  both.  Dr.  John  M. 
Mason's  remarks  may  be  quoted  on  this  point,  though  they 
should  be  received  with  some  reservation.  He  says,  "Do 
not  choose  a  man  who  always  preaches  upon  insulated  texts. 
I  care  not  how  powerful  or  eloquent  he  may  be  in  handling 


164  PREACHING. 

them.  The  effect  of  his  power  aud  eloquence  will  be,  to 
banish  a  taste  for  the  word  of  God,  and  to  substitute  the 
preacher  in  its  place.  You  have  been  accustomed  to  hear 
that  word  preached  to  you  in  its  connection.  Never  permit 
that  practice  to  drop.  Foreign  churches  call  it  lecturing  ;  and 
when  done  with  discretion,  I  can  assure  you  that,  while  it 
is  of  all  exercises  the  most  difficult  for  the  preacher,  it  is, 
in  the  same  proportion,  the  most  profitable  for  you.  It  has 
this  peculiar  advantage,  that  in  going  through  a  book  of 
Scripture,  it  spreads  out  before  you  all  sorts  of  character, 
and  all  forms  of  opinion,  and  gives  the  preacher  an  oppor- 
tunity of  striking  every  kind  of  evil  and  of  error,  without 
subjecting  himself  to  the  invidious  suspicion  of  aiming  his 
discourses  at  individuals." 

2.  Illustrative  development.  This  has  reference  to  the 
illustration  of  truth  by  the  proof  and  evolution  of  facts, 
rather  than  of  words  or  ideas.  It  may  be  chiefly  char- 
acterized as  the  historical  sermon.  As  the  Bible  is  pre- 
eminently a  book  of  facts,  and  has  a  noble  historical 
development  in  itself,  this  may  form  a  legitimate  and  inter- 
esting mode  of  preaching,  as  it  was,  indeed,  the  method  of 
the  apostles.  As  all  men  love  to  see  truth  in  living  forms, 
they  will  listen  with  interest  to  lessons  drawn  from  sacred 
history  and  biography,  which  is,  indeed,  the  rich  residuum  of 
the  deepest  experience  of  the  race.  The  great  features  and 
facts  of  Paul's  life,  in  connection  with  the  old  religions  and 
civilizations  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  cannot  fail  to 
arrest  attention,  and  lead  to  nobler  and  higher  thought. 
We  are  not  to  become  simply  historians  in  the  pulpit,  but 
to  set  forth  and  impress  the  higher  truth  through  the  living 
lessons  of  history,  of  all  history,  not  only  that  of  the  Bible 
times  and  personages,  but  of  man,  and  of  the  church  in  all 
ages  —  of  the  great  facts  and  events  of  modern  days  bearing 
upon  the  spiritual  welfare  of  man  and  the  interests  of 
Christ's  kingdom  in  the  earth.      Protestant  preaching  has 


§   16.      THE   DEVELOPMENT.  165 

doubtless  lost  somethiug  here  ;  and,  in  this  respect,  we  may 
learn  a  lesson  from  the  Roman  Catholics ;  they  choose,  as 
themes  for  illustrative  preaching,  the  times  and  examples 
of  eminent  Christians,  both  ancient  and  modern. 

This  kind  of  preaching  has  its  own  mode  of  developing  a 
subject,  and  allows  of  a  more  discursive  and  generalizing 
method.  It  permits  a  freer  use  of  the  imagination,  where 
it  does  not  transcend  the  bounds  of  truth.  It  permits  the 
drawing  of  various,  and  sometimes  unaccustomed,  remarks 
and  lessons  from  the  facts  evolved  —  lessons  often  of  a 
homely,  personal,  and  direct  kind.  It  has  been  said  that 
"  Demosthenes'  arguments  were  Demosthenes'  facts  ;  "  and 
so  the  argument  of  every  sermon  should  rest  solidly  on 
facts. 

A  writer  before  quoted,  in  the  New  Englander  (July, 
1863),  remarks,  "Pulpit  eloquence  must  be  grounded  on 
the  plainest  narrative.  Afterwards  it  may  warm  itself  until 
it  exhales  symbols  of  every  form  and  color;  speaks  only 
through  its  most  poetic  forms ;  but,  first  and  last,  it  must 
be  a  biblical  statement  of  fact.  The  orator  is  thereby  an 
orator,  that  he  keeps  his  feet  ever  on  a  fact."  Let  us  be 
careful,  then,  not  to  permit  our  dogma,  or  doctrine,  or  theo- 
ry, or  sentiment,  or  lesson,  lose  its  foundation  in  biblical  fact 
and  history,  since  our  Saviour's  preaching  itself  was  founded 
upon  the  great  facts  of  human  consciousness  and  divine 
revelation. 

3.  Argumentative  development.  This  is  to  convince  the 
judgment  by  bringing  out  and  establishing  the  truth  through 
proof  and  evidence.  Thus  in  the  text  "  By  grace  ye  are 
saved,''  the  argumentative  development  would  reason  upon 
and  show  the  truth  of  this  ;  while  the  expositor}'  and  illus- 
trative developments  would  simply  set  forth  the  scriptural 
account  of  the  method  of  salvation  by  grace  ;  and,  exemplify 
it.  All  subjects  are  not  fitted  for  the  argumentative  devel- 
opment, although,   perhaps,  reasoning  may  be   applied  to 


166  PEE  ACHING. 

any  subject  which  admits  of  being  true  or  false ;  but  doc- 
trinal subjects  —  those  which  contain  scriptural  teaching,  that 
may  be  confirmed  by  reasons  and  proofs  —  are  the  chief  sub- 
jects for  argumentative  development. 

This  method  also  has  its  advantages ;  indeed,  many 
writers,  among  them  Dr.  Fitch,  prescribe  it  as  the  best  and 
invariable  method  of  sermonizing.  Argument  impresses 
truth  already  believed,  and  convinces  of  truth  not  before  be- 
lieved. An  enlightened  faith  rests  on  proper  grounds  of 
evidence,  either  external  or  internal,  and  the  more  fully 
these  grounds  are  set  forth,  the  more  firmly  established  will 
be  the  faith.* 

Argument  is  also  often  useful  in  arousinoj  the  feelins^s.  The 
mind  becomes  interested  in  a  truth  which  is  capable  of  clear 
l^roof,  and  it  is  overcome  by  the  spiritual  weapons  of  reason 
and  truth.  The  most  successful  preachers,  as  instruments 
of  producing  immediate  conversion,  the  most  successful 
revival  preachers,  are  often  at  first  severely  argumentative. 
They  thus  gain  power  to  bear  down  upon  the  conscience 
and  heart.  The  argumentative  style  of  sermon  is  so  com- 
mon with  us  in  New  England,  that  we  usually  speak  of  the 
"  body  "  or  "  development "  of  the  discourse  as  "  the  argu- 
ment." 

The  argumentative  development  of  a  sermon  is  of  two 
kinds  :  the  indirect  and  the  direct.  I.  The  indirect.  Under 
this  comes,  (a.)  The  refutation  of  objections.  This  should 
generally  be  in  the  first  part  of  the  body  of  a  discourse,  be- 
cause the  last  words  should  be  the  strongest,  and  should  leave 
a  positive  impression.  When  the  objections  are  trivial,  they 
need  not  be  noticed;  but  when  they  are  real,  and  present 
truly  intellectual  difficulties,  it  is  best  to  discuss  them  one 
by  one.  Refutation  removes  the  obstacles  and  clears  away 
the  rubbish,  before  we  begin  to  build  the  argument.  And 
there  is  nothing  like  grappling  with  an  antagonist,  to  excite 
interest,  for  man  naturally  loves  fighting,  and  almost  every 
one  is   more  forcible   in  refuting   than  in  proving.      But 


§  16.      THE   DEVELOPMENT.  167 

the  preaching  should  not  stop  at  the  refutation ;  for  Chris- 
tianity is  not  a  negative  system —  it  is  full  of  reasons. 

In  refutation  we  should  be  especially  careful  to  be  candid, 
since  in  this  way  we  gain  the  confidence  of.  our  hearers 
when  we  proceed  to  the  proof.  We  may  gain  a  decided 
advantage  sometimes  in  turning  an  objection  into  a  proof; 
we  thus  carry  the  war  into  Africa.  No  trifling  objections 
should  be  stated.  No  time  should  be  spent  in  demolishing 
men  of  straw.  And  above  all  things,  acrimony  in  refuting 
opposing  arguments  should  be  avoided.  (6.)  The  su])posi-, 
iitious  form  of  argument.^  This  is  another  form  of  indi- 
rect argument.  It  consists  in  bringing  up  several  different 
forms  of  suppositions,  beginning  with  the  least  plausible ; 
and  by  discussiug  and  disproving  these  in  succession,  you  lay 
the  way  for  the  one  which  you  wish  to  establish.  Thus  the 
doctrine  of  human  sinfulness  may  be  proved  by  gradually  an- 
nihilating the  various  hypotheses  of  human  goodness  which 
men  adduce  for  their  own  escape  from  this  humbling  and 
consuming  truth,  and  by  leaving  it  as  the  only  possible 
truth,  (c.)  The  serial  or  gradual  argument.  This  form 
of  indirect  argument  begins  with  some  distinct  and  com- 
mon truth,  that  is  readily  conceded  by  your  hearer,  and 
then  comes  up  by  making  the  predicate  of  one  proved 
truth  the  subject  of  another,  until  what  you  wish  speci- 
ally to  prove  presents  itself  in  an  irresistible  form,  as  a 
foregone  conclusion.^  2.  The  direct  method  of  argument. 
This  consists  in  the  adducing  of  direct  and  positive  proof. 
The  subjects  of  pulpit  discourse  are  commonly  those  which 
come  under  the  general  department  of  moral  evidence. 
This  permits,  and  even  requires,  proof.  Proof  is  that 
mental  act  or  process  by  which  we  arrive  at  certainty  in 
our  judgments  respecting  truth ;  and  when  the  argument 
relates  strictly  to  truth,  or  to  fact,  the  proofs  are  called 
reasons;  when  it  is  concerning  right,  or  duty,  they  arc  called 

'  Dr.  Fitch.  ^  Idem. 


168  PREACHING. 

motives.  Argument  deals  chiefly  with  the  first,  or  with 
reasons. 

As  to  the  sources  of  proof,  they  are  commonly  divided 
into  two  classes  —  mediate  and  immediate.  1.  The  immedi- 
ate are  those  which  spring  from,  (a.)  Consciousness,  or  that 
which  appeals  to  the  internal  sense  of  right  in  the  mere 
statement  of  a  truth.  (6.)  PercejJtion,  or  that  which  is  the 
object  of  our  own  observation  as  regards  cause  and  effect  — 
as,  Poison  kills,  (c.)  Tes^mo?!?/,  or  the  related  perceptions 
of  others  —  in  fact,  a  common  and  universal  perception. 
(d.)  Intuition,  which  pertains  to  the  apprehension  of  ab- 
stract truths  —  as  purely  mathematical  and  rational  truths 
that  are  the  objects  of  spontaneous  belief,  because  the  rea- 
sons for  them  exist  in  the  mind  itself. 

Dr.  Fitch  would  add  to  these  common  sense,  which  is  a 
kind  of  induction  from  general  grounds  of  human  thought 
and  observation.  2.  The  mediate  sources  of  proof  are 
those  which  are  founded  upon  the  principle  that  all  truth 
is  one,  and  that  its  various  parts  have  essential  relations 
to  each  other.  This  admits  of  reasoning  from  what  is 
known  to  what  is  unknown  —  from  what  is  established  to 
what  is  to  be  established ;  in  a  word,  if  such  and  such 
things  are  true,  other  things  must  be  true :  it  is  the  usual 
method  of  deductive  reasoning. 

We  would  make  two  or  three  suggestions  in  relation  to  the 
strictly  argumentative  development  of  a  discourse  :  — 

(1.)  In  taking  an  argumentative  position  one  should  be 
sure  that  it  is  a  strong  one.  The  premise  taken  in  the 
beginning  should  be  thoughtfully  taken ;  and  the  truth 
you  seek  to  establish  should  be  fairly  reasoned  out,  or  be 
capable  of  being  reasoned  out,  and  not  be  a  mere  assump- 
tion. 

(2.)  In  the  arrangement  of  an  argument  one  shoidd  eajer- 
cise  great  judiciousness  and  care.  One  should  observe  the 
two  great  principles  of  attending  to  the  force  of  probability 


§  16.      THE  DEVELOPMENT.  169 

that  unites  the  proof  to  the  conclusion,  and  to  the  right 
connection  between  the  arguments  themselves.^ 

Without  entering  into  all  the  rules  upon  the  method  and 
order  of  argumentative  preaching,  we  would  just  notice  the 
common  argument  from  the  Scriptures.  As  a  general  rule, 
when  the  direct  testimony  of  Scripture  forms  a  part  in  a  series 
of  arguments,  it  should  occupy  the  first  place.  If  the  series 
relates  to  God,  it  should  always  be  first ;  e.  g.,  "  the  veracity 
of  God."  The  natural  and  true  order  would  be,  1.  His  own 
word  as  to  his  veracity.  2.  His  conduct  as  showing  this. 
But  in  speaking  of  man  we  should  sometimes  take  this  tes- 
timony of  God  last,  since  he  is  omniscient  and  infallible. 
If  we  speak  to  unbelievers,  Ave  may  adduce  Scripture  first, 
and  then  the  proofs  from  reason,  which  are  stronger  in  their 
minds  ;  but  when  we  speak  directly  to  Christians,  the  Scrip- 
ture proof  should  be  used  last.  They  may  distrust  your 
reasoning,  but  they  will  bow  to  the  Scriptures,  while  still 
the  reasoning  may  be  useful  in  confirming  the  truth. ^ 

(3.)  The  discourse  should  rarely  or  never  be  exclusively 
argumentative.  Thought  should  not  lose  its  life  by  going 
through  a  strictly  dialectic  process.  The  sermon  is  not, 
after  all,  a  proposition  of  Euclid.  No  part  of  it  should  be 
entirely  disconnected  from  the  will,  the  feelings,  and  the 
experience  of  men.  It  should  not  become  a  matter  of  pure 
intellect.  The  preacher  may  in  this  way  conquer,  but  he 
will  not  convince  nor  convert. 

To  this  suggestion  that  the  sermon  itself  should  rarely  be 
wholly  or  exclusively  argumentative,  might  be  added,  that 
the  general  style  of  preaching  should  not  be  exclusively 
argumentative. 

We  want  often  simpler  practical  sermons  —  sermons  that 
do  not  discuss,  but  only  earnestly  express,  religious  truth  and 
feeling  —  sermons  that  spring  from  the  heart  more  than  the 
head  —  sermons,  too,  that  have  a  more  attractive  literary 

'  Dr.  Fitch.  ^  Idem. 

15 


170  PEEACHING. 

form  where  the  imagination  plays  freely ;  sermons  that  cast 
aside  the  stiff  robes  of  argumentation,  and  are  unbound, 
spontaneous,  spiritual.  The  jDreacher  of  an  argumentative 
cast  of  mind  should  especially  guard  against  the  temptation 
of  this  tendency,  and  should  cultivate  freer  forms  of  dis- 
course ;  and  so,  on  the  other  hand,  the  illogical  and  sen- 
sational preacher  should  cultivate  a  severer,  solider  style, 
just  as  we  give  mathematics  to  a  dreamer  to  make  him 
think.  As  the  argumentative  method  implies  the  predomi- 
nance of  the  human  over  the  divine  element  in  preaching, 
a  more  cautious  use  of  it,  and  a  return  to  a  simpler,  less 
ambitious,  and  more  spiritual  manner  of  preaching,  are  to 
be  commended. 

(4.)  The  argument  should  not  he  too  high  or  abstruse  for 
the  audience.  It  may  be  very  close  and  powerful,  but  it 
should  ground  itself  in  human  nature,  or  in  the  common 
laws,  truths,  and  motives  of  the  human  mind,  which  all 
men  appreciate  and  understand.  It  has  been  said  that 
"  the  foundations  of  argument  in  the  pulpit  must,  to  a  great 
extent,  be  commonplace." 

4.  Persuasive  development.  This,  too,  is  a  kind  of  argu- 
mentative discussion  for  the  purpose  of  conviction,  but  it 
deals  chiefly  with  motives,  rather  than  proofs  or  reasons.  It 
does  not  end  with  mere  conviction,  but  rather  with  persua- 
sion. It  addresses  the  will  with  motives  of  good,  urging 
it  to  the  performance  of  immediate  duty.  If  the  will  of 
the  hearer  is  opposed  to  the  truth,  the  aim  is  to  remove 
the  will  from  its  present  object  of  choice,  and  to  fix  it  upon 
another  and  true  object ;  if  the  will  is  apathetic  or  indifier- 
ent,  the  aim  is  to  awaken  it  to  action  and  choice  ;  if  the 
will  is  fiivorable,  the  aim  is  to  encourage  and  strengthen 
this  good  purpose.  This  method  of  development  partakes 
somewhat  of  the  hortatory  st^lc  of  sermon,  being  addressed 
to  the  feelings  as  well  as  the  reason.  It  requires  something 
more  than  proof.     A  man  may  be  convinced  by  proof,  but 


§  16.      THE   DEVELOPMENT.  171 

he  must  be  persuaded  to  act  and  choose  by  motives.  Few 
preachers  can  afford  to  leave  out  the  persuasive  element. 
This  should  be  manifested  in  the  course  of  the  develop- 
ment. We  want  to  bring  men  to  a  choice ;  to  make  them 
rise  up  and  do  the  word  of  the  Lord. 

There  must  be  some  ultimate  ground  of  choice,  or  there 
could  be  no  object  or  ground  of  persuasion.  Choice  implies 
the  existence  of  an  alternative.  Now,  it  is  the  object  of 
persuasive  reasoning  to  show  others  the  true  reasons  and 
motives  of  choice,  that,  these  being  fully  set  before  the 
mind,  and  deliberately  weighed,  the  mind  may  be  led  to 
make  the  good  choice.  The  end  of  all  persuasion  is,  to 
show  that  the  greatest  good  lies  on  the  side  of  duty.  The 
obvious  means  to  this  are,  presenting  inducements,  con- 
siderations, motives ;  for  that  which  moves  a  man  to  do 
anything,  is  a  motive.  Of  course  the  preacher  of  righteous- 
ness can  deal  only  with  good  and  true  motives.  What, 
then,  are  the  sources  of  persuasionf 

Vinet  reduces  all  motives  which  the  preacher  can  employ 
to  two — goodness  and  Itappiness.  In  presenting  the  motive 
of  happiness,  one  should  be  careful  to  present  the  high  and 
true  idea  of  happiness,  ending  in  the  blessedness  of  the 
Christian ;  he  should  show  that  goodness  and  happiness 
are  necessarily  and  finally  united,  are  really  one,  and  that 
the  old  stoic  axiom,  "To  be  conscious  of  virtue  is  happi- 
ness," is  realized  in  an  infinitely  higher  sense  in  the  Chris- 
tian life.  There  is  even  a  true  self-love  which  may  be  justly 
appealed  to.  In  fact,  the  tastes,  desires,  sympathies,  and 
affections  of  our  nature  —  all  that  powerful  side  of  our 
nature  —  are  not  to  be  lost  sight  of,  since  it  is  not  mere 
reason  that  moves  men  to  act ;  it  is  also  feeling,  desire, 
affection. 

Nothing  is  more  wonderfully  adapted  to  move  our  deep- 
est feelings  than  the  motives  presented  in  the  gospel.  Christ, 
being  lifted  up,  does  draw  all  men  unto  him.  The  attrac- 
tions of  the  cross  are  even  greater  than  the  terrors  of  the 


172  PREACHING. 

law ;  and  the  terrors  of  the  law  are  to  be  preached,  "to  per- 
suade men,"  as  motives  of  the  gospel. 

We  would  mention  a  few  of  these  motives  of  persuasion 
which  a  preacher  of  the  gospel  might  legitimately  employ. 

(a.)  The  good  and  happiness  of  this  life,  which  are  greater 
on  the  side  of  righteousness  than  of  unrighteousness.  The 
man  who  has  real  iriDrightuess  of  heart  is  the  most  apt  to 
secure  human  friendship  and  worldly  prosperity,  to  succeed 
in  his  business  and  in  whatever  he  undertakes  to  do  with 
his  fellow-men.  Keligion  has  the  promise  of  this  life,  as 
well  as  of  that  to  come.  And  yet  one  should  be  guarded 
here  in  not  dwelling  exclusively,  as  is  sometimes  done,  on 
this  lower  or  prudential  range  of  motives. 

(b.)  The  good  which  comes  from  self -approval.  He  who 
does  a  good  act  is  amply  repaid  in  his  own  mind. 

(c.)  The  good  and  happiness  which  accrue  to  other  beings 
by  righteous  action;  and,  of  course,  the  misery  which  accrues 
from  the  opposite  course  ;  for,  in  all  these  motives,  that 
which  dissuades  from  evil  is  a  motive  to  persuade  to  good. 
The  condemnation  and  misery  of  wicked  men  form  an  in- 
direct persuasive  to  goodness.  Just  fear  is  thus  a  strong 
motive. 

(cZ.)  The  good  which  comes  from  the  exercise  of  the  holy 
affections,  to  ourselves,  to  others,  and  to  the  universe. 

(e.)  The  doing  of  right  because  it  is  right — for  its  own 
sake.  This  meets  a  motive  in  our  own  nature  and  con- 
sciousness. 

(/.)  The  moving  power  of  the  loving  will  of  God,  made 
known  in  his  Son  Jesus  Christ.  Christ  is  the  central  mo- 
tive to  be  set  forth  by  the  Christian  preacher — the  love  of 
God  in  Christ  to  sinners.  Gratitude,  trust,  love,  are  ap- 
pealed to  here  in  the  strongest  conceivable  forms.  Grace 
is  the  grand  motive  of  the  gospel. 

(^.)  The  eternal  as  well  as  temporal  happiness  arising 
from  righteous  action.  He  who  does  the  will  of  God  will 
share  the  blessedness  of  God  himself  forever. 


§  16.       THE    DEVELOPMENT.  173 

(h.)  The  glory  of  God.  To  the  true  and  perfect  mind 
this  is  the  highest  motive,  and,  in  one  sense,  the  only  motive. 

In  these  motives  we  appeal  both  to  the  lower  and  higher 
elements  of  our  nature,  to  our  self-interest,  and  to  the  pure, 
unselfish  principle  of  the  good  of  others  and  the  glory  of 
God. 

As  to  the  legitimate  methods  of  pe7'suasioii  in  preaching, 
whether  indirect  or  direct,  these  may  be  mentioned  as  some 
of  them  :  — 

1.  The  indirect  method  of  the  use  of  dissuasives  to  ivrong 
action i  springing  from  the  evil  which  will  certainly  accrue. 
Ab  has  been  said,  the  dissuading  from  evil  is,  in  fact,  one 
method  to  persuade  to  good.  The  evils  and  final  miseries 
of  sin  are  the  persuasives  of  holiness. 

2.  The  indirect  method  of  the  presentation  of  the  alterna- 
tive choice;  i.  e.,  if  one  is  not  moved  by  all  the  good  con- 
siderations which  are  ofl:ered,  he  must  take  the  alternative. 

3.  The  use  of  mixed  arguments  and  motives,  blending 
the  argumentative  and  persuasive  forms  of  development. 

4.  The  use  of  direct  motives,  without  any  abstract  reason- 
ing or  circumlocution  addressed  to  the  simple  end  to  move 
the  will  and  heart. 

Of  course  our  method  of  persuasion  should  be  adapted 
to  the  class  of  hearers  we  address ;  and  we  should  proceed 
in  a  natural  way,  by  first  interesting  the  intellect,  bringing 
out  intelligently  the  motives  of  persuasion,  showing  their 
importance,  and  their  personal  importance,  and  pressing 
them  home  upon  the  heart. 

Vivid  description,  moral  painting,  is  a  powerful  method 
of  persuasion,  in  which  one  is  led  to  see  his  own  heart  in 
the  masterly  delineation  of  character. 

In  striving  to  overcome  prejudices,  before  the  true  motives 
can  be  presented,  there  are  two  methods  :  first,  to  endeavor 
to  do  away  entirely  with  the  false  impression,  by  showing 
how  unjust  and  absurd  it  is ;  and,  secondly,  to  admit  the 
feeling,  or  prejudice,  or  passion,  as  having,  perhaps,  some 
15* 


174  PEE  ACHING. 

groimcl  for  its  existence,  but  to  give  it  a  truer  direction. 
One  saj's,  for  instance,  "If  I  were  only  a  Christian,  I  would 
be  a  better  man  than  some  Christians  whom  I  know."  Then 
press  him  to  he  such  a  Christian  as  lie  boasts  that  he  would 
be.  Another  says,  "I  am  too  ambitious  to  be  a  follower  of 
Christ.  I  freely  confess  that  I  am  too  aspiring  to  be  thus 
lowly  and  humble."  Then  tell  him  that  Christianity  does 
not  extinguish  the  natural  motive  of  ambition,  but  leads 
to  a  purer  ambition  for  things  truly  great  and  honorable. 

Paul's  reasoning  with  the  Athenians  in  respect  to  the 
"  unknown  God "  is  one  illustration  of  the  skilful  employ- 
ment of  this  kind  of  persuasive  argument,  yielding  as  it 
does  to  the  feeling  or  opinion  of  others  for  the  moment, 
so  far  as  it  is  not  harmful  to  do  so,  in  order  to  use  it 
with  power  for  the  conviction  and  persuasion  of  those  very 
persons.  One  does  not  often  persuade  a  man  to  do  right 
by  proving  to  him  that  he  is  wrong ;  but  if,  by  kindly  and 
skilfully  showing  him  that  he  is  condemned  by  himself,  by 
his  own  truer  impulses  and  nobler  reason,  j^ou  may  convict 
him  of  wrong  without  injuring  his  self-respect  and  arousing 
his  antagonism  ;  you  not  only  convict,  but  persuade. 

What  may  be  termed  the  motive  of  the  possible  —  some- 
times used  by  preachers  —  should  be  employed  very  cau- 
tiously, if  employed  at  all;  e.  g.,  jpossibhj  this  may  be  all 
true ;  jjossibly  there  may  be  such  a  thing  as  the  eternal 
condemnation  of  the  irrelio:ious.  Such  reasoning^  is  of 
doubtful  character,  and  is  apt  to  cause  injurious  reaction. 
It  is  better  to  preach  the  things  that  are,  rather  than  those 
that  may  be. 

All  these  different  modes  of  development  which  have  been 
mentioned  will,  of  course,  vary  widely  in  their  form,  style, 
and  spirit ;  but  still  there  are  some  simi)le  principles  or 
qualities  which  should  be  found  in  the  development  of  all 
kinds  of  sermons ;  these  are,  the  qualities  of  unity,  round- 
ness or  perfectness,  progress,  and  balance  or  proportion. 


§   16.       THE    DEVELOPMENT.  175 

1.  Unity.  This  has  been  and  will  be  often  mentioned  in 
varions  relations ;  but  it  cannot  be  too  much  urged.  One 
general  aim,  one  main  impression,  should,  if  possible,  be 
given  to  one  discourse ;  and  this  is  all  we  ought  to  expect 
for  one  discourse.  This  unity  should  run  through  its  whole 
substance,  and  animate  ever}^  fibre.  This  unity  may  be 
destroyed  by  yielding  to  the  temptation  of  dwelling  too 
long  upon  an  interesting  but  isolated  thought ;  by  treating 
entirely  diverse  topics  in  one  discourse,  with  no  general 
principle  uniting  them  ;  by  mixing  up  two  or  more  similar 
thoughts ;  by  following  out  metaphorical  language  weari- 
somely or  triviall3\  Any  discussion,  on  any  of  the  parts 
of  the  sermon,  however  profitable  and  forcible  in  itself, 
which  is  not  pertinent  to  the  main  subject,  impairs  unity. 
The  whole  development  should  have  regard  to  every  part. 

2.  Roundness  or  perfectness.  This  regards  the  parts  as 
well  as  the  whole.  There  should  be  freedom  in  carrying 
out  every  part  of  a  discourse  to  its  legitimate  end  of  inter- 
est, employing  all  the  stores  of  thought  and  illustration. 
This  is  the  portion  of  the  discourse  for  its  life  to  flow  out 
in  fullest  currents,  and  not  to  be  hampered  by  plans  and 
rules.  Each  thought  should  be  as  thoroughly  developed  as 
if  there  were  no  other  thought  in  the  discourse.  The  idea 
of  the  main  development  should  not  override  or  destroy  the 
complete  finish,  both  intellectual  and  literary,  of  each  of  its 
parts.  How  full  in  this  development  are  the  sermons  of 
the  Plymouth  Pulpit,  where  the  preacher  seems  to  give  un- 
limited play  to  every  faculty  and  every  emotion,  carrying 
out  a  thought  to  its  furthest  ramifications,  drawing  from  all 
the  richness  of  nature  and  life,  and  yet  not  without  a  method 
or  a  sagacious  pui*pose  which  points  each  illustration,  guides 
each  flight  of  fancy,  and,  while  seemingly  most  unrestrained, 
brings  all  to  bear  with  immense  power  upon  some  one  prac- 
tical truth  or  lesson  ! 

This  free  development  of  each  of  the  parts,  combined 
with  the  workman-lik«  welding  together  of  all  in  one  whole, 


176  PREACHIXG. 

SO  that  there  is  no  imperfect,  meagre,  flat,  and  unsatisfying 
portion  of  the  sermon,  constitutes  completeness. 

3.  Progress.  This  has  reference  to  the  right  ordering 
of  thoughts,  so  that  one  thought  should  prepare  for  and  be 
succeeded  by  another  which  forms  an  advance  ;  this  secures 
an  increasing  momentum  of  impression.  The  sermon  should 
not  repeat  itself,  or  retrace  its  steps,  but  go  on  with  accel- 
erated power  to  the  end. 

4.  Balance  or  proportion.  This  has  relation  to  the  pro- 
portion and  space  each  part  or  thought  should  occupy  in 
regard  to  the  main  development,  and  to  each  other  part  of 
the  discourse.  Vigorous  brevity  is  thus  secured  where  it 
is  needed,  and  careful  elaborateness  where  it  is  essential. 
Of  course  the  object  we  have  in  view,  and  the  peculiar  char- 
acter of  the  sermon,  must  decide  this.  In  an  expository 
sermon,  the  explanation,  which  is  commonly  brief,  becomes 
the  elaborate  part  of  the  discourse.  It  is  a  great  beauty 
when  a  preacher  knows  in  what  part  the  real  pith  of  his 
sermon  lies,  and  where  to  lay  out  his  strength.  This  gives 
tone  to  the  sermon.  The  general  idea  of  proportion  is, 
that  there  should  be  a  well-made  and  powerful  body  to  the 
sermon.  The  strength  should  be,  as  it  were,  in  the  loins 
of  the  discourse.  The  sermon  should  be  thoroughly  com- 
pacted, and  able  to  carry  itself  nobly;  not  a  dwarf  with  a 
giant's  head  and  a  feeble  body. 

That  which  is  wanted  in  the  body  of  a  sermon  is  solidity 
of  thought,  rapidity  of  discussion,  and  a  spiritual  earnest- 
ness of  purpose  rising  above  every  merely  intellectual  aim, 
and  pressing  the  truth  Avith  every  reason  and  motive  drawn 
from  time  and  eternity  upon  the  individual  heart.  Let 
there  be  an  expanding  fulness  here,  an  unbound,  rich,  and 
living  thought,  a  development  which  is  a  real  growth  from 
the  germ  of  scriptural  truth  taken  into  the  fructifjdng  soil 
of  the  soul's  meditation,  ample  and  beautiful,  and  filled 
with  nourishing  fruit. 

We  might  conceive  the  ideal  of  a  Christian  sermon,  not 


§  16.       THE    DEVELOPMENT.  177 

yet  attained,  or  not  attained  by  all,  but  which  is  adapted  to 
the  needs  of  our  highest  modern  civilization,  while  it  does 
not  lose  the  earnestness  and  practical  aim  of  the  gospel.  It 
is  unpretentious,  devotional,  springing  from  the  meditation 
of  a  holy  soul  upon  the  Scriptures,  with  Christ  as  the  cen- 
tral, burning  theme;  tender  and  full  of  love,  but  strong  in 
apostolic  faith,  like  the  preaching  of  masculine  Paul  and 
Luther;  courageously  hopeful  for  man,  and  filled  with  the 
true  "  enthusiasm  of  humanity ; "  thoughtful  and  substantial 
in  reasoning,  but  not  intellectual  so  truly  as  spiritual;  not 
confined  in  any  set  forms,  but  free  with  that  liberty  where- 
with Christ  makes  free  ;  with  an  internal  rather  than  exter- 
nal method  of  thought ;  of  the  highest  literary  style,  because 
fresh  and  simple,  almost  plain  and  homely,  so  that  the  igno- 
rant man  and  the  child  may  understand  what  feeds  the  most 
highly  educated  hearer;  as  well  fitted  for  backwoodsmen 
as  for  philosophers,  because  it  is  deep  and  penetrating,  is 
drawn  from  the  common  wells  of  truth  and  salvation,  appeals 
to  the  common  wants  and  desires  of  the  heart,  and  is  fitted 
to  convert  men  from  sin,  and  to  lead  them  to  the  life  of  God. 
Nothing  could  be  so  simple,  and  yet  nothing  so  high  and 
difiicult,  as  such  a  sermon.  It  could  not  be  learned  in  the 
schools,  for  it  is  not  theological,  though  it  teaches  a  true 
theology.  It  must  be  taught  by  the  spirit  of  Christ  to  the 
consecrated  mind  that  has  conscientiously  and  laboriously 
done  its  part  in  the  way  of  thorough  preparation. 

The  development  of  such  a  sermon  will  be  but  the  expan- 
sion and  filling  out  of  thoughts  and  words  furnished  by  the 
secretly  inspiring  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  it  will 
therefore  be  divinely  adapted  to  the  salvation  of  sinful  men, 
and  the  edification  of  the  church  of  Christ. 


178  PREACHING. 


§  17.     The  Conclusion. 

The  conclusion  of  a  sermon  is  the  fit  winding  up  and  the 
practical  application  of  all  that  has  preceded.  In  oratory 
it  is  called  the  "peroration."  It  holds  the  same  relation  to 
the  end  of  the  sermon  that  the  "  exordium  "  or  introduction 
does  to  the  beginning.  It  is  not  really  the  sermon  itself, 
but  is  the  taking  leave  of  the  subject  in  such  a  way  as  to 
gather  up  and  forcibly  impress  its  teachings.  In  the  con- 
clusion, the  preacher,  if  he  has  wandered  away  from  his 
hearers,  is  drawn  back  to  them ;  he  is  reminded  that  it  is 
for  them  he  is  preaching,  and  for  their  spiritual  welfare ;  he 
is  to  leave  the  truth  in  their  hearts. 

The  conclusion  is  a  trying  and  perilous  part  of  the  dis- 
course, because  it  is  always  difficult  to  stop  gracefully,  to 
finish  effectively.     Boileau  says,  — 

"  Qui  ne  sut  se  borner  ne  sut  jamais  ecrire." 

It  is  indeed  a  great  thing  to  know  when  to  stop.  Luther, 
speaking  of  the  qualities  of  a  good  preacher,  says  that  "  he 
should  know  when  to  make  an  end."  There  is  a  true  con- 
clusion to  every  discourse.  The  god  Terminus  alone,  at 
the  building  of  Rome,  would  not  yield  to  Jove  himself. 
The  conclusions  of  great  literary  works,  such  as  Paradise 
Lost,  Jerusalem  Delivered,  and  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  are  memorable  for  their  beautiful 
simplicity.  Many  an  effective  sermon  has  been  greatly 
weakened  by  drawing  out  its  conclusion  to  too  great  length. 
Rev.  William  Taylor  has  well  said,  "Often  when  a  preacher 
has  driven  a  nail  in  a  sure  place,  instead  of  clinching  it,  and 
securing  well  the  advantage,  he  hammers  away  till  he  breaks 
the  head  off,  or  splits  the  board." 

The  importance  and  advantages  of  a  good  conclusion  are 
seen  in  the  following  reasons  :  — 


§  17.      THE   CONCLUSION.  179 

1.  It  enables  the  preacher  to  carry  out  the  true  idea  of 
preaching ;  i.  e.,  to  give  a  practical  application  to  what  he 
preaches,  directing  it  to  the  conscience  and  heart  of  his 
hearers.  The  end  of  preaching  is  the  actual  conversion 
and  sanctification  of  souls.  There  may  be,  however,  excep- 
tions to  the  rule  that  the  application  should  come  in  the 
conclusion,  (a.)  When,  from  the  nature  of  the  discussion, 
there  is  necessarily  a  coritinuous  application  in  the  body  of 
the  sermon.^  In  certain  kinds  of  discourse,  as,  for  instance, 
expository,  hortatory,  and  historical  discourses,  the  appli- 
cation may  naturally  run  along  with  the  development  of  the 
sermon,  or,  where  the  divisions  of  a  topical  sermon  are 
themselves  practical,  no  direct  practical  application  is  needed 
at  the  end.  The  less  elaborate  and  argumentative  the  dis- 
course, the  less  need  of  reserving  the  application  for  the  end. 
{b.)  When,  from  the  nature  of  the  audience  or  the  occasion, 
there  is  necessarily  a  continuous  application  of  the  subject. 
The  more  general,  illiterate,  and  youthful  the  audience,  the 
more  need  of  a  running  application  of  the  theme  to  the 
conscience  and  heart,  in  order  to  keep  attention  alive,  and 
to  produce  a  vivid  impression. 

But,  notwithstanding  these  exceptions,  a  good  conclusion 
is  needed  to  enforce  the  moral  impression  of  a  whole  ser- 
mon ;  and  in  the  case  of  a  strictly  topical  and  argumenta- 
tive discourse,  it  is  almost  without  exception  essential. 

2.  It  combines  the  scattered  impressions  of  a  sermon  into 
one  powerful  iinpression,  and  thus  adds  to  the  effect  of  what- 
ever has  gone  before.  The  skilful  preacher  understands  this, 
and  shapes  his  whole  sermon  so  as  to  make  the  conclusion 
effective,  and  to  leave  a  deep  impression  at  last. 

3.  It  preserves  the  sensibilities  of  preacher  and  hearer 
from  being  exhausted.  It  does  this  by  retaining  all  the 
freshness  and  force  of  feeling  for  the  final  appeal. 

4.  It  avoids  a  rude  abruptness  in  closing.    It  gives  a  mor 

'  Professor  Phelps. 


180  PREACHING. 

ment's  opportunity  for  the  mind  to  pause  and  reflect  upon 
the  whole  subject  gone  over ;  it  is  the  attainment  of  a 
momentary  superior  elevation,  from  which  the  eye  of  the 
speaker  and  hearer  may  sweep  back  over  the  sermon,  and 
take  in  its  entire  moral  impression. 

We  will  now  look  at  the  different  parts  of  the  conclusion. 
The  "conclusion"  or  "peroration"  was,  in  ancient  oratory, 
divided  into  the  recapitulation  and  the  appeal  to  the  pas- 
sions. In  modern  times,  and  especially  in  the  sermon,  the 
conclusion,  rhetorically  treated,  is  commonly  divided  into, 
1.  Recapitulation;  2.  Applications,  inferences,  and  remarks; 
3.  Appeal  to  the  feelings,  or  personal  appeal.  Each  of  these, 
or  all  combined,  may  form  the  conclusion. 

And  what  the  conclusion  should  be  —  whether  one  of 
these  parts  should  be  chosen,  or  all  of  them  —  is  to  be  de- 
cided by  the  character  of  the  development,  and  by  studying 
how  to  increase  the  force  of  the  moral  impression,  which 
should  be  strongest  at  the  end.  There  ought  to  be  no  set 
manner  of  ending  a  sermon  ;  and,  generally  speaking,  a  good 
sermon  ends  itself.  Those  are  the  best  conclusions  that 
make  themselves,  and  that  are  not  too  long  in  the  making. 
Joseph  Hall,  in  his  preface  to  his  Virtues  and  Vices,  says, 
"I  desired  not  to  say  all  that  might  be  said,  but  enough." 
The  famous  Dr.  Barrow,  after  preaching  three  mortal  hours, 
was  finally  blown  down  by  the  organ's  setting  up  to  play  ; 
and  old  Thomas  Fuller  gives  an  amusing  account  of  an  Au- 
gustine friar  who  came  to  an  end  more  summarily  still.  He 
says  that  the  friar  "  bellowed  so  loud  that  he  lost  his  argu- 
ment, conscience,  and  voice,  at  once  and  together." 

1.  Recapitulation.  This  can  be  borne  only  by  a  decidedly 
argumentative  discussion,  and  it  is  borrowed  from  forensic 
address.  That  kind  of  recapitulation  often  increases  the 
power  of  a  discourse  by  compressing  its  substance  into  a 
small  space.     It  likewise  strengthens  the  whole  argument, 


§  17.      THE   CONCLUSION.  181 

by  binding  up  weak  and  strong  arguments  together,  giving 
an  impression  of  finish  and  strength  to  the  whole.  It  serves, 
above  all,  to  aid  the  memory,  and  it  is  addressed  to  the  intel- 
lect more  than  the  feelings.  The  recapitulation  should  be, 
(a.)  rapid  and  dear^  —  a  bird's  eye  glance.  There  should 
be  nothing  stiff,  formal,  and  statistical  in  the  recapitulation ; 
its  design,  in  addition  to  assisting  the  memory,  is  to  concen- 
trate the  force  of  the  separate  heads  of  argument  into  one, 
thus  preparing  the  way  to  the  application.  (6.)  It  should 
not  repeat  arguments  in  precisely  the  same  language  as  that 
employed  in  the  body  of  the  sermon,  but  should  be  cast  in 
a  fresh  form.  (c.)  It  is  sometimes  effective  to  vary  the 
order  of  the  arguments  themselves,  generally  by  arranging 
them  in  a  climactic  order.  (cZ.)  The  recapitulation  should 
have  certainty  and  confidence  of  tone.  It  supposes  that  the 
truths  enumerated  have  been  proved  and  settled ;  that  they 
have  come  out  from  the  vague  and  contradictory  condition 
of  the  beginning  of  the  sermon  into  distinct  and  established 
shapes. 

As  has  been  hinted,  recapitulation  is  iK)t  always  desira- 
ble, particularly  if  one  has  nothing  especial  to  recapitulate, 
if  he  has  not  preached  a  solid  sermon,  or  if  the  ideas  of  the 
sermon  have  been  ill  dijjrested  and  ill  arrano^ed.  The  reca- 
pitulatiou,  in  some  instances,  may  be  made  during  the  prog- 
ress of  the  discussion,  in  order  to  give  a  clearer  view  of 
the  connection  of  parts  while  passing  on,  and  to  impress 
and  gather  up  all  the  thoughts,  so  that  at  the  close  there  is 
no  need  of  any  further  mentioning  of  these.  Above  all,  a 
recapitulation  is  inadmissible  when  the  appeal  to  the  feel- 
ings grows  naturally  out  of  the  last  topic  discussed,  or  the 
last  division  introduced. 

2.  Applicatory  inferences  and  remarTcs.  "Inferences  are 
logical  deductions  from  the  argument ;  remarks  are  natural 

*  Professor  Phelps. 

16 


182  PREACHING. 

suggestions  drawn  from  it."  ^  Taken  both  together,  they 
indicate  the  use  which  is  made  of  the  subject  immediately 
after  the  discussion.  Tliey  form  a  method  of  making  the 
direct  application  of  the  arguments.  Inferences  may  be 
made  to  bring  out  more  clearly  the  symmetry  of  truth. 
Thus,  after  discussing  the  doctrine  of  moral  evil  in  a  series 
of  inferences,  one  may  show  its  deep  relations  to  other 
and  brighter  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  and  may  thus  take  a 
broad  and  rajiid  sweep  from  the  basis  of  the  discussion, 
around  the  whole  circle  of  related  truth.  Inferences  may 
also  conduce  to  unexpected,  powerful  impressions.  After 
thoroughly  discussing  a  topic,  we  may  in  an  inference  sud- 
denly open  a  hidden  relation  in  an  entirely  different  direc- 
tion ;  and  this  may  have  been  deliberately  prepared  for 
during  the  whole  sermon.  The  mine  may  have  been  silently 
dug  under  the  citadel  of  the  unbelieving  heart.  Inferences 
should  not,  however,  be  suffered  to  destroy  the  unity  of. the 
discourse ;  and  this  is  .their  tendency,  which  is  to  be  care- 
fully guarded  against.  Kather  than  do  this,  they  had  better 
be  left  out  altogether. 

As  to  rules  for  inferences :  —  ' 

1.  Thei/  should  be  draivn  directly  from  the  whole  char- 
acter and  development  of  the  sermon.  Thus  in  the  argumen- 
tative sermon,  after  we  have  given  the  hearers  a  view  of 
the  proofs,  we  may  in  the  application  bring  home  the  truth 
that  has  been  proved,  more  particularly  to  the  hearers'  own 
minds ;  we  follow  out  the  same  design  we  have  heretofore 
pursued. 

In  the  expository  sermon,  we  may  close  with  the  uses  and 
lessons  we  have  gained,  as  applied  to  the  different  condi- 
tions of  our  hearers.  In  the  persuasive  sermon,  there  should 
be  at  the  end  a  more  close  application  of  the  motives  as 
directed  to  the  particular  action  to  which  we  would  persuade 
men.^     Thus  the  subject  and  our  own  particular  aim  in  its 


'  Professor  Phelps.  ^  Day's  Art  of  Discourse,  p. 


207. 


§  17.      THE    CONCLUSION.  183 

discussion  should  shape  the  character  of  the  inferences. 
They  should  be  parts  of  the  body  of  the  sermon ;  they 
should  bear  the  stamp  of  their  common  origin,  and  belong 
to  the  same  family  of  thoughts  and  ideas.  There  may  be 
sometimes  an  exception  to  this  rule,  when  the  whole  discus- 
sion of  a  subject  is  intended  to  be  only  subsidiary  to  a 
different  application  of  the  subject.  Thus,  in  a  biographi- 
cal discourse,  after  one  has  set  forth  the  virtues  and  char- 
acter of  an  individual  —  in  the  conclusion,  he  may  enforce 
some  one  or  more  moral  truths,  that  have  been  livingly 
exemplified.  So,  too,  the  explanation,  in  the  body  of  a  ser- 
mon, of  a  certain  truth,  may  be  subservient  to  the  setting 
forth  of  some  other  nearlj^-related  truth ;  or  it  may  show  a 
personal  duty,  or  may  lead  to  a  distinct  self  application,  or 
*  self-examination.  An  argument  upon  a  truth  may  lead  to 
the  conviction  of  a  duty ;  indeed,  whatever  the  character  of 
a  sermon  is,  the  use  of  it  in  the  conclusion  should  be  per- 
suasive.^ 

2.  They  should  be  forcible,  and  drawn  from  the  body  of 
the  sermon;  i.  e.,  they  should  not  be  feeble  or  frivolous  in- 
ferences ;  and  they  should  not  be  all  the  inferences  that  could 
possibly  be  drawn  from  a  subject.  There  should  be  weight 
and  freshness  in  them.  In  the  application,  we  go  beyond 
the  bare  general  truth  of  our  subject,  and  present  those 
forcible  conclusions  which  are  to  persuade  our  hearers  in 
particular.  Inferences  may  be  drawn  from  other  inferences, 
if  they  are  still  in  harmony  with  the  general  discussion,  and 
if  they  grow  out  of  it. 

As  has  been  said,  there  may  possibly  be  cases  where  the 
inference  is  entirely  aside  from  the  definite  subject  of  the 
sermon  —  thus,  a  lesson  to  the  impenitent  may  follow  a 
sermon  addressed  to  believers.  This  kind  of  side-issue, 
or  divergent  inference,  should  at  least  follow  a  discourse 
which  abounds  in  solid  thought,  which  carries  all  before  it, 

•  Dr.  Fitch. 


184  PREACHING. 

and  which  makes  room  for  itself  to  send  its  messasfes  in 
every  direction.  As  a  general  rule,  it  is  more  forcible  to 
make,  in  the  conclusion,  a  final  concentration  upon  one  point 
which  has  been  more  widely  discussed  and  illustrated  in  the 
body  of  the  sermon,  rather  than  to  make  a  final  difi'usion  of 
thought,  or  widening  out  of  the  discussion  into  general  re- 
marks. 

Dr.  Fitch  says  that  it  is  best  always  to  make  the  applica- 
tion of  the  whole  subject,  and  not  of  the  particular  thoughts. 
Build  the  fortification  as  nicely  and  elaborately,  piece  by 
piece,  as  you  may,  and  then  fire  from  it.  Subjects,  however, 
difier.  Some  lead  irresistibly  to  broad  and  universal  con- 
clusions, especially  those  which  relate  to  the  nature  of  God. 

3.  They  should  have  regard  to  the  character  and  states  of 
mind  of  the  hearers,  as  well  as  to  the  character  and  design 
of  the  subject;  e.  g.,  when  the  hearer  is  reasonably  sup- 
posed to  be  persuaded  of  the  truth  or  necessity  of  a  certain 
duty,  he  should  then  be  told  how  to  perform  that  duty, 
and  should  be  helped  to  overcome  its  difficulties.  You  do 
not  wish  so  much  to  add  anything  more  to  convince  him,  as 
to  aid  in  doing  the  thing  of  which  he  is  presumed  to  be  al- 
ready persuaded.  Christians  and  unbelievers,  as  they  are 
in  diflerent  states  of  mind,  are  to  be  differently  addressed 
in  the  conclusion.  Encouragements,  alarms,  hopes,  fears, 
choices,  afi'ections,  are  difierent  in  each. 

4.  2Viey  should  increase  in  force  and  importance.  Re- 
marks relating  to  truth  or  conviction  should  precede  those 
respecting  duty  or  persuasion.^  And  in  persuasion  we 
should  address  those  first  Avho  are  most  favorably  disposed, 
and  therefore  ceteris  paribus  we  should  address  the  converted 
before  the  unconverted. 

5.  They  should  be  free  from  stiffness,  dulness,  and  mo- 
notonousness.  Never  should  those  qualities  appear  in  a 
eonclusion,  if  they  do  anywhere  else,  as  it  is   absolutely 

'  Dr.  Pitch. 


§  17.      THE   CONCLUSION.  185 

needful  that  there  should  be  the  variety,  individuality,  and 
vivid  life  in  our  concluding  remarks. 

Some  preachers  draw  pretty  much  the  same  inferences 
from  all  subjects ;  but  we  had  better  make  one  bold,  im- 
pressive, original  inference,  than  a  dozen  that  are  common- 
place. F.  W.  Eobertson,  though  abounding  in  inferential 
remarks,  rarely  cast  his  conclusion  into  a  set  of  formal  in- 
ferences, but  in  closing  usually  made  one  strong  remark, 
one  unexpected  deduction,  driven  with  tremendous  power 
by  all  that  had  gone  before.  Thus,  in  a  sermon  to  men  of 
wealth  he  says,  "  To  conclude ;  "  and  in  a  few  condensed 
words  he  pours  out  a  burning  torrent  of  rebuke  upon  the 
clerg}^  of  England  for  their  flattery  of  men  of  wealth,  and 
their  cowardly  apologizing  for  the  vices  of  the  rich.  Such 
a  sermon  was  not  forgotten.  It  left  an  ineffaceable  impres- 
sion on  the  conscience  of  those  persons  it  was  meant  to  reach. 

Doddridge  says  that  the  conclusion  of  a  sermon  should  be 
striking.  Massillon  sometimes  closed  with  a  supplication. 
Each  remark  of  a  conclusion  should  rise  in  power,  should  be 
free  and  untrammelled,  and  often  abrupt  as  a  thunder-peal, 
smiting  the  conscience  with  terror. 

Dr.  Fitch  says,  that  in  the  application  there  is  more 
occasion  for  vehemence  and  force  than  in  any  other  part. 
Jonathan  Edwards  was  inclined  to  be  prolix  in  his  conclu- 
sions ;  they  were  often  more  full  of  thought  than  feeling. 

3.  Appeal  to  the  feelings.  There  are  usually  three  modes 
of  ending  a  sermon  :  (a.)  In  the  form  of  a  series  of  in- 
ferences SiS,  just  suggested;  {b.)  In  the  form  of  detached 
observations  following  generally  biographical  and  historical 
subjects;  (c.)  In  the  form  of  direct  address  or  appeal^ 
which  follow  out  the  aim  of  the  sermon,  or  are  appended 
directly  to  the  body  of  the  discourse.  In  this  direct  ad- 
dress is  generally  the  place  for  the  appeal  to  the  feelings. 

This  address  to  the  feelings  is  something  above  all  art, 
and  the  more  spontaneous  and  natural  it  is  the  better.  That 
16* 


186  PREACHING. 

is  often  the  inspired  moment  of  the  discourse  :  it  is  inspired 
or  not ;  it  is  real  or  artificial ;  it  is  everything  or  nothing. 
There  should  be  true  feeling  in  it,  or  the  speaker  should 
not  attempt  an  appeal  to  the  feelings  of  others. 

1.  The  whole  sermon  should  be  more  or  less  arranged  for 
the  moral  and  emotional  effect  of  the  conclusion.  This  should 
be  unconsciously  rather  than  artfully  done.  All  should  hasten 
to  the  end.  One  should  begin  the  sermon  with  the  end  in 
view.  He  should  strike  the  same  chord  at  the  end  which  he 
did  at  the  beginning,  though  with  tenfold  force.  If  one  has 
this  aim  to  leave  a  deep  and  lasting  impression  on  the  heart 
of  the  hearers,  pathetic  and  passionate  thoughts  will  present 
themselves  while  he  is  composing  the  sermon.  These  should 
be  remembered  and  gathered  up  for  the  conclusive  appeal. 

2.  The  appeal  shoidd  not  he  for  rhetorical ^  hut  for  true 
effect.  The  conclusions  of  Demosthenes'  and  ^schines' 
orations  "  On  the  Crown "  were  introduced  to  cause  in 
their  hearers  the  feeling  which  the  orators  wished  to  cre- 
ate. Their  banishment  or  triumph,  their  political  life  or 
death,  depended  on  the  result.  They  reserved  their  strong 
word  for  the  last.  They  hurled  it  with  all  their  force  upon 
the  hearts  of  their  hearers.  It  was  a  real  thing  with 
them  to  succeed.  It  was  no  child's  play.  And  has  the 
preacher  any  smaller  stake?  Has  he  any  less  enduring 
crown  in  view?  Should  he  himself  have  less  feeling?  Bax- 
ter says,  in  his  Eeformed  Pastor,  "  I  know  not  what  others 
think,  but  for  my  own  part,  I  am  ashamed  of  my  stupidity 
and  wonder  at  myself  that  I  deal  not  with  my  own  and 
others'  souls  as  one  that  looks  for  the  great  day  of  the 
Lord,  and  that  I  can  have  room  for  almost  any  other 
thoughts  or  words,  and  that  such  astonishing  matters  do  not 
wholly  absorb  my  mind.  I  marvel  how  I  can  preach  of 
them  slightly  and  coldly,  and  how  I  can  let  men  alone  in 
their  sins,  and  that  I  do  not  go  to  them  and  beseech  them, 
for  the  Lord's  sake,  to  repent,  however  they  take  it,  or  what- 
ever pains  or  trouble  it  should  cost  me.     I  seldom  come  out 


§  17.      THE   CONCLUSION.  187 

of  the  pulpit  but  my  conscience  smites  me  that  I  have  been 
no  more  serious  and  fervent  in  such  a  cause.  It  accuses 
me  not  so  much  for  want  of  human  ornaments  and  ele- 
gancy, but  it  asketh  me,  '  How  couldst  thou  speak  of  life 
and  death  with  such  a  heart  ? ' " 

3.  The  appeal  should  not  he  ovei'drawn.  Hamlet's  ad- 
vice is  still  good  ;  there  should  be  a  calmness,  a  self-posses- 
sion, even  in  the  very  torrent  and  flow  of  the  most  pathetic 
appeal.  One  must  control  himself,  to  control  his  audience. 
He  should  not  go  before  them  in  the  manifestation  of 
emotion.  Pathos  in  the  conclusion  does  not  so  much  con- 
sist in  a  strained,  high-pitched  voice,  or  an  agitated  manner, 
or  intense  and  harrowing  language,  as  in  a  certain  deep- 
ening of  the  tone  of  feeling,  a  concentration  of  thought, 
and  a  profound  earnestness  of  the  whole  man.  Sometimes  a 
preacher  must  weep,  and  he  would  not  have  a  true  heart  if 
he  did  not ;  but  it  were  better  for  him  not  to  weep.  Yet 
if  he  cannot  prevent  tears,  let  them  flow ;  Christ  wept  over 
Jerusalem.  Restrained  emotion  is  often  more  powerful 
than  its  expression.  The  appeal  should  be  made  to  the 
spiritual  sensibilities. 

4.  All  appeals  to  feeling  should  he  hrief.  Thus  the  most 
touching,  the  most  direct  remark  one  has  to  make,  comes 
naturally,  and  it  were  better,  spontaneously.  It  should  be 
said  in  as  simple  and  few  words  as  possible.  "  Tears  dry 
fast."  Let  nature's  short  road  to  the  feelings  be  studied. 
A  particular  case,  or  a  personal  fact,  is  better  than  any  more 
general  observation,  to  touch  the  feelings.  An  apt  allusion 
to  some  individual,  or  some  circumstance,  is  more  moving  in 
the  conclusion  than  the  best  philosophical  generalizations. 
For  the  real  close  itself,  so  far  as  the  feelings  are  con- 
cerned, nothing  is  more  impressive  and  moving  than  a 
feeling,  solemn  passage  of  the  Scripture,  either  the  text  or 
some  other  perhaps  still  more  pointed  word  of  Scripture. 
Then  the  sermon  begins  and  ends  with  the  word  of  God. 
The  voice  of  God  first  breaks  the  silence,  and  after  the  voice 


18&  PREACHING. 

of  man  has  been  heard  for  a  while,  the  voice  of  God  comes 
again  at  the  close ;  and  if  this  is  the  warm  expression  of  the 
love  of  the  gospel,  simple,  genuine,  pure  ;  so  much  the  more 
effective. 

5.  An  indirect  appeal  is  often  effective.  Men  are  jealous 
of  appeals  to  their  feelings  ;  and  perhaps  the  strongest  ap- 
peal, after  all,  is  so  to  construct  the  whole  discourse  as 
that  it  shall  make  its  own  appeal. 

"  Of  every  noble  work  the  silent  part  is  best, 
Of  all  expression  that  which  cannot  be  expressed." 

We  are  more  and  more  inclined  to  think  that  the  conclu- 
sion of  a  sermon  should  not  be  highly  wrought,  but  simple. 
This  is  the  trial  of  the  conclusion.  If  there  is  an  appeal 
to  the  feelings,  it  should  flow  naturally  from  the  last  re- 
mark or  thought  of  the  sermon,  rather  than  arouse  a  dis- 
tinct expectation  that  now  an  appeal  is  to  be  made  to 
the  impenitent,  to  the  young,  to  church  members.  This 
tends  to  deprive  the  conclusion  of  its  effect.  Sometimes 
the  whole  concluding  appeal  may  be  in  a  single  sentence. 
This  was  peculiarly  characteristic  of  Luther's  "conclusions." 
A  German  writer  says,  "Luther  did  not  lay  great  stress  on 
the  conclusion,  and  many  of  his  sermons  are  without  any 
recapitulation.  He  ends  some  of  his  sermons  abruptly,  with 
the  words,  'Enough  now  has  been  said  upon  this  scripture ; 
let  us  call  upon  the  grace  of  God.'  In  other  discourses  he 
simply,  in  conclusion,  repeats  the  main  thought  of  the  last 
division  of  the  discourse,  and  says,  'Have  faith  and  love; 
abide  in  them ;  so  you  can  have  and  do  all  this.'  Or  he 
closes  with  a  wish :  '  God  grant  that  we  also  may  compre- 
hend;' or,  'God  keep  us,  save  us,  and  grant  that  we  may 
earnestly  hold  to  this  teaching,  so  that  we  may  not  fall  into 
shameful  sin  and  reproach.'  "  ^ 

Stereotyped  forms  of  appeal  —  of  direct  appeal  —  to  the 

'  C.  Jonas,  Die  Kanzelberedsamkeit  Luther's,  p.  513. 


§  17.      THE  CONCLUSION.  189 

unconverted,  have  lost  much  of  their  power.  There  is 
sometimes  an  impressiveness  in  leaving  them  ofi'  altogether. 
But  it  may  possibly  be  that  —  the  custom  of  direct  appeal 
having  fallen  so  much  into  disuse,  and  sermons  having  be- 
come so  essay ish  and  impersonal,  and  devoid  of  directness 
and  point  —  a  return  now  and  then  to  the  old  method  of 
direct  appeal  to  the  impenitent,  at  the  close  of  the  sermon, 
might,  in  some  cases,  be  deeply  effective.  The  conclusion 
of  Whitefield's  sermon  on  the  "  Kingdom  of  God  "  is  an  ex- 
ample of  this  kind  of  personal  appeal.  The  great  and  only 
question  is,  How  is  the  deepest  impression  to  be  made  by  a 
sermon?  It  certainly  depends  very  much  on  the  conclusion. 
The  sermon  has  been  compared  to  a  river :  it  may  be  small 
at  its  beginning,  but  at  its  close,  when  it  pours  itself  into 
the  ocean,  it  should  be  the  fullest  in  volume,  the  profoundest 
in  depth,  the  most  majestic  in  movement,  though,  perhaps, 
at  that  very  moment,  it  may  be  the  calmest  to  all  appear- 
ance, from  the  fact  that  it  is  pouring  along  its  greatest 
volume.  So  the  conclusion  of  a  sermon  on  divine  truth 
may  be  apparently  the  most  tranquil  part  of  the  sermon  ;  but 
that  is,  and  should  be,  the  tranquillity  of  the  deepest  feeling, 
of  the  fullest  thought,  of  the  most  solemn  and  momentous 
truth ;  for  it  has  then  reached  a  point  where  it  is  about  to 
mingle  with  the  ocean  of  eternal  life  or  death ;  it  is  "  the 
savor  of  life  unto  life,  or  of  death  unto  death ; "  the  word 
has  been  spoken,  and  it  returns  to  God ;  the  conclusion  may 
be  calm,  and  even  joyful,  but  it  should  be  the  calmness  of 
earnest  and  solemn  feeling. 

As  a  suggestion  in  closing  a  sermon,  let  the  preacher  be 
kind  in  his  words  and  manner  even  to  the  wickedest  and 
worst.  In  the  moment  of  the  most  solemn  adjuration,  or 
even  burning  rebuke  and  denunciation,  let  the  tender  affec- 
tionateness  of  the  gospel  glow.  This  personal  appeal  in  all 
cases  is  difficult,  and  is  often  better  to  be  indicated  than 
actually  made ;  but  there  should  be,  directly  or  indirectly, 
with  boldness,  but  in  love,  a  personal  application  of  the  ser- 


190  PREACHCNG. 

mon ;  and  there  may  be  times  when  nothing  else  is  suitable, 
or  nothing  will  reach  the  point,  excepting  the  words  of  Na- 
than to  David,  ^'Thou  art  the  man!"  Love  in  the  heart 
will  teach  us,  and  it  alone  will  teach  us,  how  to  reach  the 
hearts  of  our  sinful  fellow-men. 

Let  the  preacher  keep  in  mind  that  the  end  of  preaching 
is  not  preaching  itself,  but  a  lodgment  of  the  renovating 
truth  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  hear :  in  the  language  of 
Vinet,  "  God  has  purposed  that  man  should  be  the  channel 
of  truth  to  man.  Not  only  are  words  to  be  transmitted 
and  repeated ;  a  life  is  to  be  communicated.''^ 


PART   SECOND. 

RHETOEIC  APPLIED  TO' PREACHING. 


FIRST  DIYISIOK 
GENERAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  RHETORIC. 

§  18.     Definition  of  Rhetoric. 

Rhetoric  was  formerly  an  absorbing  study  in  schools  of 
learning  when  they  were  more  truly  theological  schools  than 
they  now  are,  and  in  ancient  times  it  comprised  the  full  half 
of  education ;  but  we  are  now  simply  to  discuss  some  of 
the  uses  of  rhetoric  as  applied  to  preaching  —  its  advan- 
tages in  enabling  the  preacher  to  master  and  methodize 
truth,  so  as  to  present  it  with  the  most  power  to  the  minds 
of  men,  that  they  may  more  readil}^  grasp  it,  and  that  it 
may,  by  God's  blessing,  produce  immediate  and  lasting 
results. 

As  it  is  needful,  for  this  purpose,  that  the  preacher  should 
make  use  of  his  natural  poivers ;  as  he  must  call  into  exer- 
cise his  reason  and  persuasive  faculties ;  as  he  must  avail 
himself  of  the  laws  of  mental  science  and  the  capacities  of 
human  speech,  just  as  he  does  in  conveying  any  natural 
truth  to  the  mind, — it  thus  becomes  essential  for  him  to 
understand  those  universal  principles  of  persuasion,  and 
those  laws  of  thoughtful  discourse,  which  form  in  them- 
selves an  important  subject  of  inquiry,  and  mark  a  definite 
science. 

(191) 


192  PREACHING. 

Great  minds  in  the  past  have  carefully  thought,  observed, 
and  labored  upon  this  subject ;  for  the  power  of  eloquence 
has  alwaj^s  been  one  of  the  most  wonderful  facts  in  man's 
history,  and  the  results  of  their  observation  and  thought, 
especially  in  the  land  of  Greece,  where  eloquence  arose  and 
flourished  as  upon  its  native  soil,  were  gathered  up  under 
the  general  name,  or  department,  of  rhetoric. 

The  word  "  rhetoric "  is  derived  from  (irjTO)^,  a  speaker, 
or  orator  (from  stem  <>?,  to  speak,  seen  in  the  fut.  ^^w,  I 
will  speak).  This  primary  meaning  of  the  word  should  not 
be  lost  sight  of  in  considering  the  true  scope  and  functions  of 
the  art  of  rhetoric  ;  for  it  shows  that  the  term  was  originally 
exclusively  applied  to  the  art  of  public  speaking,  or  to  a 
spoken  discourse. 

Before  endeavoring  to  define  what  true  rhetoric  is,  let  us 
notice  some  of  the  leading  ideas  which  have  prevailed  con- 
cerning it.  (1.)  Ancient  ideas  of  rhetoric.  These  are  rep- 
resented principally  by  Aristotle  and  Plato.  Aristotle  con- 
fined rhetoric  almost  entirely  to  the  art  of  public  speaking. 
In  accordance  with  the  genius  of  the  free  Greek  state,  where 
every  citizen  was  an  independent,  thinking,  and  governing 
power,  and  the  state  was  chiefly  composed  of  the  voting 
citizens  who  resided  in  the  city,  and  could  thus  be  reached 
and  swayed  by  the  public  orator ;  the  popular  deliberative 
assembly,  in  which  the  civil  leader,  or  counsellor,  could 
come  directly  in  contact  with  the  popular  mind,  was  the 
great  field  for  the  practice  of  the  rhetorical  art.  This  art 
formed  one  of  the  chief  means  of  obtaining  mastery  over 
men  —  of  the  science  of  politics.  It  therefore  became  asso- 
ciated with  the  arts,  managements,  and  sophistries,  of  polit- 
ical leaders,  and  began  to  be  looked  upon  with  suspicion, 
as  meanins:  somethino:  in  itself  artful,  or  artificial. 

Aristotle  regarded  it  wholly  as  an  instrumental  art ;  as  a 
means  of  mastery ;  as  a  means  to  an  end.  If  he  regarded 
virtue  and  truth  as  true  rhetorical  forces,  yet  he  looked 


§  18.       DEFINITION    OF    RHETORIC.  193 

upon  them  as  but  secondary  or  incidental  elements  in  the 
dynamics  of  rhetoric.  Rhetoric  he  looked  on  as  the  art 
of  proving.  It  was  with  him  almost  identical  with  logic, 
or  reasoning.  Whatever  would  enable  one  to  carry  his  point, 
to  gain  the  victory,  came  under  the  faculty  of  "'Pi^To^txTj." 
The  end  of  rhetoric,  with  Aristotle,  was  persuasion.  He 
called  it  "  a  faculty  of  considering  all  the  possible  means 
of  persuasion  on  every  subject.'^  ^  It  was  thus,  in  his  idea, 
an  offshoot  of  dialectics  and  politics.  It  was  wrestling  with 
minds;  the  skilful  and  strenuous  assault  upon  them,  with 
every  means  of  argument  and  persuasion,  to  subdue  them. 
It  was  the  art  of  making  men  believe  as  we  would  wish 
them  to  believe,  and  do  as  we  would  wish  them  to  do. 
Every  one  might  come,  good  or  bad,  and  gather  weapons 
from  this  art,  and  make  himself  a  powerful  man  to  carry 
his  ends  with  the  people.  Aristotle's  view  thus  gave  the  turn 
to  the  ancient  idea  of  rhetoric,  and  it  came  to  be  looked 
upon  as  a  species  of  dialectic  skill  that  might  be  taught  and 
acquired,  by  which  the  public  mind  could  be  influenced, 
and  ambitious  ends  attained.  By  the  dexterous  use  of 
words,  plausible  arguments,  striking  terms  of  speech,  and 
tricks  of  delivery,  the  orator  could  lead  the  people  at  will. 
Aristotle  admits,  as  has  been  said,  that  truth  itself  has  an 
inherent  rhetorical  power,  and  he  has  something  to  say  upon 
the  ethical  aspects  of  the  art ;  but,  if  we  mistake  not,  the 
view  which  has  been  given  was,  in  the  main,  Aristotle's 
conception  of  rhetoric ;  and  doubtless,  in  the  technical  sense 
of  the  term,  he  was  correct  —  that  rhetoric  is  the  art  of 
persuasion  by  public  discourse. 

Plato  held  higher  views,  and  came  very  near  the  best 
modern  conception  of  rhetoric.  Under  the  name  and  sanc- 
tion of  Socrates,  in  various  treatises,  above  all  in  the  "  Gor- 
gias,"  Plato  attacks  the  mere  art  or  artifice  of  rhetoric, 
showing  the  unphilosophical  and  unprincipled  character  of 

'  Aristotle's  Rhetoric,  chap,  ii.,  sec.  1. 

17 


194  PREACHING. 

the  sophistic  idea  of  rhetoric,  as  a  mere  art  to  win  by ;  that 
if  it  were  solely  the  application  of  m«ans  to  an  end,  that 
end  miirht  be  the  basest  imaginable,  and  the  art  of  rhet- 
oric  might  thus  be  wholly  the  art  of  deceiving  and  corrupt- 
ing. This  kind  of  rhetoric,  founded  on  empirical  rules, 
aiming  at  immediate  success,  and  exalting  the  seeming  over 
the  true  —  Plato  pronounced  worthless.  He  proves,  also, 
that  it  is  no  true  art ;  that  it  is  but  a  kind  of  skill  or  knack, 
like  the  boxer's  art.  After  refuting  this  low  idea  of  rhet- 
oric, he  gives  his  own  conception  of  the  orator ;  the  true 
orator  is  shown  to  be  the  man  who  does  not  strive  only  for 
mastery,  but  who  aims  to  build  up  truth  and  justice  in  the 
state,  and  to  exalt  himself  by  just  means,  and  for  the  good 
of  the  people,  and  who,  even  if  unsuccessful  in  carrying 
his  point  or  in  obtaining  mastery,  is  nevertheless  declared 
to  be  the  true  orator. 

Cicero  held  the  views  of  Aristotle,  from  whom  he  draws 
his  own.  He  speaks  of  his  own  art  with  the  enthusiasm 
and  zeal  of  an  orator,  rather  than  with  the  conscientious- 
ness of  a  philosopher.  1  He  is  even  more  intense  than 
Aristotle  in  the  idea  of  the  purely  instrumental  character 
of  rhetoric,  and  he  applies  oratory  chiefly  to  the  business 
of  civil  polity,  and  to  the  acquiring  of  mastery  in  that.  He 
exults  in  it  as  an  art  of  fence,  or  as  a  strong  weapon  not 
possessed  by  every  one,  and  which  is  to  be  skilfully  wielded 
for  the  purpose  of  self-defence,  power,  and  conquest ;  he 
says,  "  What  is  so  useful  as  at  all  times  to  bear  about  those 
weapons  by  which  you  can  defend  yourself,  challenge  the 
infamous,  and,  being  wounded,  revenge?"^  Cicero  was 
naturally  cold  in  his  disposition,  and  inclined  to  ornament 
for  its  own  sake;  and,  though  often  affirming  it,  he  never- 
theless, in  spirit,  difiered  from  the  high  Platonic  or  Socratic 
view,  which  made  so  much  of  the  moral  idea  in  rhetoric ; 
and  he  conceded  almost  everything  to  outward  grace,  orna- 

^  De  Oratore,  B.  II.,  c.  viii.  ^  Idem,  B.  I.,  c.  viii. 


§  18.       DEFINITION   OF   RHETORIC.  195 

ment,  and  attraction.  "There  may  be  many  good  speak- 
ers," he  said,  "but  he  alone  is  eloquent  who  can  in  a  more 
admirable  and  noble  manner  amplifj'-  and  adorn  whatever 
subjects  he  chooses,  and  who  embraces  in  thought  and  mem- 
ory all  the  principles  of  everything  relating  to  oratory."  ^ 

Quintilian^s  idea  of  the  art  of  oratory  was  nearly  the  same 
as  that  held  by  Cicero,  although  he  maintained,  with  much 
more  emphasis  than  Cicero  did,  that  eloquence  was  an  ethi- 
cal quality,  and  that  the  orator  must  be  a  good  man.^  His 
practical  idea  of  rhetoric,  however,  was,  that  it  is  a  means 
to  an  end,  and  that  the  end  often  justifies  the  means ;  and 
his  brief  definition  of  oratory  is,  ^Hhe  art  of  speaking  ?re?i;" 
affirming  the  great  object  and  the  ultimate  end  of  oratory 
to  be,  "to  speak  well."^ 

(2.)  Modern  ideas  of  rhetoric.  In  considering  these, 
we  should  not  forget  that  ages  have  passed  away,  bringing 
great  changes  of  manners  and  thought  with  them  ;  that  the 
enlargement  of  the  means  of  popular  address,  and  of  the 
diffusion  of  ideas,  chiefly  through  the  press,  has  widened  the 
field  of  rhetoric  ;  and  that  the  whole  moral  revolution  which 
Christianity  has  wrought  in  the  intellectual  and  social  world 
has  tended  to  elevate  the  conception  of  the  rhetorical  art. 
As  one  of  the  forces  of  the  world,  Christianity  has  claimed 
rhetoric,  and  permeated  it  with  something  of  its  own  spirit, 
so  that  there  is  felt  and  acknowledged  to  be  such  a  thing  as 
Christian  eloquence. 

As  to  the  actual  field  which  the  modern  idea  of  rhetoric 
embraces,  it  has  extended  itself  beyond  the  ancient  limit, 
which  was  confined  almost  entirely  to  public  speaking,  or 
oratory,  properly  so  called,  and  has  taken  in  the  art  of 
prose  composition,  and  even  some  hinds  of  literature,  in 
addition  to  the  art  of  public  speaking.  But  it  must  have 
a  limit.  It  cannot  include  all  kinds  of  literature.  It  can- 
not inckide  poetry,  or  philosophj'^,  or  science,  strictly  so 

'  De  Oratore,  B.  I.,  c.  xxi.  '  Quintilian's  Institutes,  B.  II.,  c.  xx. 

^  Quintilian's  Institutes,  B.  II.,  c.  xv. 


196  PREACHING. 

called.  It  must  confine  itself  to  that  species  of  literary 
composition  which  relates  to  the  means  of  popular  persua- 
sion, and  which  belongs,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  the  busi- 
ness of  the  public  speaker.  It  also  legitimately  includes 
all  that  literary  and  dialectic  training  which  fits  one  to  be 
powerful  in  speech,  whether  he  speaks  in  the  popular  assem- 
bly, the  court,  or  the  pulpit.  The  education  of  the  speaker 
or  orator  in  these  days  comprehends,  of  course,  a  wader 
field  than  in  the  ancient  days,  especially  if  he  is  a  preacher 
of  the  great  truths  of  Christianity ;  yet,  after  all,  the  area 
of  the  rhetorical  art,  though  enlarged,  is  essentially  the 
same  as  of  old.  It  continues  to  be  in  the  main  a  formal 
science,  having  to  do  more  exclusively  with  the  regulation 
of  the  form  and  method  of  public  speech  than  with  the 
materials  of  thought  or  contents  of  speech.  It  is  now,  as 
then,  the  art  of  public  speaking  for  the  purpose  of  persua- 
sion ;  and  we  would  give  the  following  as  a  definition  of 
rhetoric,  applying  to  ancient  times  as  well  as  to  the  present : 
Hhetoric  is  that  art  or  science  which  has  to  do  with  the  Unvs 
that  regulate  public  speech;  and  it  comprehends  all  that 
properly  goes  to  make  up  the  education,  training,  and  true 
power  of  the  public  speaker. 

We  have  not  attempted  to  give  a  definition  of  eloquence, 
but  only  of  rhetoric,  although  rhetoric  is,  in  a  true  sense, 
the  art  of  eloquence.  While  there  might  be  diiferent  view's 
of  what  eloquence  is,  —  one  writer  considering  it  to  be  sim- 
ply the  power  of  persuasion;  ^  another,  the  ability  to  utter 
strong  emotions  in  an  elevated  and  forceful  manner;-  an- 
other, the  poioer  of  fluent  and  continuous  expression;^ 
another,  the  gift  of  the  soul  which  makes  one  the  master 
of  the  mind  and  heart  of  others,  and  enables  him  to  inspire 
them  as  he  wills,  or  to  move  them  to  do  what  he  pleases ;  ^ 

'  Professor  Goodrich.  *  Dr.  Webster. 

^  Professor  H.  N.  Day,  Elements  of  Ehetoric,  p.  3. 
*  La  Bruyere.    Vinet's  Homiletics,  p.  22. 


§  18.       DEFINITION   OF   RHETORIC.  197 

and  another  still,  that  it  is  \he  potver  of  sympathy  in  speech^  or 
of  communicating  thought  and  feeling  by  apprehending  the 
condition  of  the  hearer's  mind,  and  by  so  chording  in  with 
his  thouglit  that  a  certain  magnetic  union  of  minds  is  evolved, 
in  which  the  hearer's  mind  is  penetrated  with  new  life  and 
power, ^  —  whatever  may  be  our  idea  of  eloquence,  and 
however  rarely  attained  this  effect  which  we  call  eloquence, 
no  one,  we  presume,  will  find  fault  with  the  definition  given 
of  rhetoric,  or,  without  disparaging  his  own  intelligence, 
deny  its  use  to  the  preacher.  He  who  speaks  must  train 
himself  for  speaking ;  and  whatever  tends  directly  to  give 
him  power  as  a  public  speaker,  whether  it  is  the  cultivation 
of  the  reasoning  faculty,  or  the  study  of  language  and  style, 
or  even  elocutionary  discipline,  is  fairly  included  in  the  art 
of  rhetoric. 

But  modern  ideas  have  improved  upon  the  ancient  one 
more  in  their  intrinsic  conception  of  rhetoric  than  in  the 
extent  of  its  appropriate  field  ;  and  yet  it  is  wonderful  hoAV 
the  ideas  of  Aristotle  and  Plato,  who  represent  the  two  poles 
of  the  human  intellect,  continue  to  control  the  world  of  phi- 
losophy and  art.  Some  modern  writers  on  rhetoric  incline 
to  the  lower  Aristotelian  view,  that  it  is  strictly  an  art  of 
persuasion ;  that  truth  itself  is  but  one  of  the  means  or 
forces  of  persuasion,  and  that  rhetoric  has  little  or  nothing 
to  do,  intrinsically,  with  virtue  or  vice,  truth  or  error : 
most  writers,  however,  incline  to  the  Platonic  view,  that 
rhetoric  must  have  a  moral  groundwork ;  and  Christianity 
deepens  this  moral  idea  of  art,  and  makes  acts  of  words  — 
acts  full  of  moral  significance  and  choice. 

Whately,  in  the  structure  of  his  mind,  was  an  Aristo- 
telian, although  his  purer  morality  and  Christian  culture 
served  in  many  ways  to  modify  and  elevate  his  views  ;  but 
he  looks  upon  rhetoric,  and  logic  also,  as  purely  instrumental 

'  Vinet's  Homiletics,  p.  23. 

■  17* 


198  PREACHING. 

arts,  "though  applicable  to  various  kinds  of  subject-matter, 
"which  do  not  properly  come  under  them."  ^  The  materials 
of  thought,  or  the  moral  groundwork  of  the  oration,  he  does 
not  consider  as  belonging  at  all  to  rhetoric ;  but  he  con- 
fines rhetoric  entirely  to  the  method  of  employing  these 
materials.  It  is  the  art  of  handling  the  tools,  whatever 
the  work  may  be.  Ehetoric  is  the  best  way  to  persuade 
men  to  think  as  we  do.  Looking  upon  it  in  this  light,  he 
defines  rhetoric  to  be  ^Hhe  art  of  argumentative  composi- 
tion ; "  2  and  his  treatise  is  mostly  taken  up  with  discussing 
the  mode  of  constructing  an  argument,  so  as  effectually  to 
subdue  the  reason,  passion,  and  will.  It  is  a  good  digest 
of  rules  upon  the  composition  of  arguments. 

Theremin,  a  thorough  Platonist,  holds  that,  though  rhet- 
oric is  an  art,  or  something  instrumental  to  the  attainment 
of  an  end  not  in  itself,  and  that,  though  it  has  to  do  with 
the  form  rather  than  the  material  about  which  it  is  employed, 
yet  that  it  has  a  vital  root  in  ethics,  and  that  its  subject- 
matter  must  always  be  t6  hl-qQig  —  the  truth.  He  terms 
eloquence — as  did,  indeed,  Quintilian  and  some  of  the  older 
writers  —  "a  virtue;  "  and  he  regards  it  as  directly  spring- 
ing from  those  moral  qualities  in  the  speaker  and  in  the 
hearer  which  underlie  the  mere  form^^*^'  art  of  the  speech 
itself.  Every  element  of  rhetoric,  considering  it  to  be  the 
"art  of  eloquence," — such  as  the  law  of  adaptation,  the 
law  oi  progress,  the  law  of  vivacity,  &c.,  —  he  develops 
from  some  principle  in  the  moral  nature  of  man ;  which 
view  certainly  ennobles  rhetorical  studies,  for  it  leads  the 
speaker  to  look  into  himself  for  power,  rather  than  to  any 
acquired  skill.  That  Theremin's  view  has  some  deep 
truth  in  it  may  be  seen  from  the  classic  orators  themselves, 
although  they  may  have  been  built  ujDon  a  shallower  idea 
of  their  own  art.  It  came  out  in  their  discourse,  because 
as  men  they  were  greater  than  their  theories.  The  moral 
power  of  Demosthenes  was  strikingly  shown  in  his  superi- 

'  Elements  of  Ehetoric,  Monroe's  ed.,  p.  20.  *  Idem,  p.  21. 


§  18.       DEFINITION    OF   EHETOEIC.  199 

ority  to  the  mere  skill  or  artifice  (however  extraordinary) 
of  his  rival,  ^schines.  Supposing  their  intellectual  acu- 
men to  have  been  the  same,  the  arguments  of  Demosthe- 
nes were  generally  drawn  from  universal  principles  of 
truth  and  right,  as  they  existed  not  only  in  himself,  but 
in  his  hearers ;  therefore  Demosthenes  was  the  greater  ora- 
tor, and  triumphed  because  truth  and  right  were  stronger 
powers  than  their  opposites.  Should  rhetoric,  or  eloquence 
even,  be  considered  as  nothing  more  than  an  art,  that  does 
not  alter  the  truth  of  the  assertion  that  it  must  have  an  ethi- 
cal foundation ;  for  every  true  art  must  have  this.  Why 
has  the  art  of  sculpture,  which  is  but  the  skill  of  a  man  to 
hew  an  inanimate  block  of  stone  into  a  certain  shape,  exerted 
such  an  influence  on  the  world  ?  Why  have  its  great  mas- 
ters—  Phidias,  Michael  Angelo,  and  Canova  —  been  real 
powers  ?  It  is  because  they  were  great  men  themselves ; 
and  in  their  works  they  drcAV  from  the  depths  of  their  moral 
nature.  Michael  Angelo's  colossal  statue  of  Moses  is  a 
highly  ethical  work,  representing  the  author's  conception 
of  the  grandeur,  unchangeableness,  and  majesty  of  the 
moral  law.  Feeling,  intense  reverence,  deep  meditation 
on  the  character  of  God,  are  combined  in  this  production ; 
it  is  unspoken  eloquence.  Eloquent  speech,  far  more  than 
such  a  dead  art  as  sculpture,  is  something  which  must  flow 
from  the  depths  of  the  moral  nature  and  character.  As  far 
as  one  is  a  true  man,  and  is  in  agreement  with  the  law  of 
truth  which  rules  man,  and  which  is  perfect  in  the  mind 
of  God,  so  far  his  speech  will  be  the  expression  of  the  truth 
■which  is  in  him ;  if  not,  it  is  false  eloquence  and  false  rhet- 
oric. If  there  is  no  depth  to  a  man,  no  inward  harmony 
with  the  truth,  he  cannot  possibly  be  an  eloquent  man, 
though  he  may  be  a  skilful  and  plausible  pleader ;  for  truth 
alone  is  eloquent,  because  it  finds  its  correspondence  in  every 
man's  conscience  and  heart,  and  because  truth  can  be  advo- 
cated and  defended  only  by  truth,  in  the  spirit  of  truth. ^ 

•  Vinet's  Homiletics,  Skinner's  trans.,  p.  25. 


200  PREACHING. 

This  more  profound  idea  of  eloquence  is,  above  all,  impor- 
tant to  the  preacher  of  divine  truth,  and  it  applies  to  him 
with  a  force  that  it  has  for  no  other  public  speaker.  He 
must  be  what  he  speaks.  He,  at  all  events,  is  not  one  who 
speaks  to  catch' the  ear,  or  to  produce  a  temporary  sensa- 
tion, he  speaks  to  make  the  truth  which  is  in  him  so  vividly 
seen  and  so  deeply  felt  by  the  hearer,  that  the  hearer  shall 
grasp  it  and  make  it  an  eternal  possession.  A  thorough 
conviction  of  the  truth  and  a  genuine  love  of  it,  are  the  real 
sources  of  eloquence  in  the  preacher.  These  are  summed 
up  in  the  single  word  faith.,  which  includes  both  the  divine 
gift  and  the  human  character.  Our  real  preaching  power 
is  our  faith.  This  was  the  eloquence  of  the  apostles  and 
of  the  first  Christian  preachers.  2  Cor.  4 :  13,  "  We  be- 
lieve, and  therefore  speak.^'  This  is  what  Dr.  Bushnell 
calls  "  the  faith-talent :  "  our  speech  should  be  the  utterance 
of  believing  souls  —  the  pure  speech  of  the  word  speak- 
ing in  us ;  and  if  the  orator,  according  to  Plato,  must  be 
a  good  man,  how  much  more  the  preacher,  according  to 
Christ !  Is  not,  indeed,  the  Christian  preacher  "  that  great 
orator  "who,  Quintilian  said,  "had  not  yet  appeared,  but 
who  may  hereafter,  and  who  would  be  as  consummate  in 
goodness  as  in  eloquence." ' 

Chrysostom  severely  censured  the  error  of  considering  the 
preacher  as  a  mere  orator,  and  he  reduced  all  the  eloquence 
of  preaching  to  this  one  object  —  to  please  God.^  To  speak 
God's  will,  "to  minister  in  the  spirit,"  requires  an  anoint- 
ing from  the  Holy  One.  The  New  Testament  is  full  of  the 
application  of  this  (as  we  think)  truly  rhetorical  principle, 
that  out  of  his  own  character,  out  of  his  inward  union  with 
the  Spirit  of  truth,  springs  the  preacher's  power. 

Dr.  Bushnell,  in  his  "  God  in  Christ,"  has  an  eloquent  pas- 
sage upon  the  preacher,  which  ends  thus  :  "  The  man  is  to 
be  so  united  to  God,  so  occupied  and  possessed  by  the  eter- 

'  Instit.,  B.  XII.,  c.  1.  §  23.         ^  Meander's  Life  of  Chrysostom,  p.  73. 


§  18.     DEFINITION   OF   RHETORIC.  201 

nal  life,  that  his  acts  and  words  shall  be  outgoings  of  a 
divine  power.  And  exactly  this  Paul  himself  declares, 
when  he  says,  'And  my  sjieech  and  my  preaching  was  not 
with  persuasive  words  of  man's  wisdom,  but  in  demonstra- 
tion of  the  Spirit  and  of  power.'  And  this  is  the  proper,  the 
truly  sublime  conception  of  the  minister  of  God.  He  is  not 
a  mere  preacher,  occupying  some  pulpit,  as  a  stand  of  natural 
eloquence,  but  he  is  a  man  whose  nature  is  possessed  of  God 
in  such  a  manner  that  the  light  of  God  is  seen  in  him ;  a 
man  whose  life  and  words  are  apodictic  —  a  demonstration  of 
the  Spirit."  These  words  fairly  carry  out  what  we  conceive  to 
be  a  true  rhetorical  principle,  not,  indeed,  as  regards  com- 
mon speakers,  but  the  Christian  preacher,  viz.,  "that  the 
preacher  of  Christ  should  be  filled  with  the  truth  and  spirit 
of  Christ — should  speak  "  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and 
of  power.''  A. 

We  end  this  discussion  upon  the  idea  and  definition  of 
rhetoric  by  saying  that,  although  rhetoric  must  still  be  con- 
sidered mainly  as  an  art,  or  that  it  has  to  do  with  the  form 
more  than  with  the  substance  of  speech,  yet  it  is  itself  in 
harmony  with  and  founded  upon  truth,  and  derives  its 
power  from  the  great  laws  and  impulses  of  man's  moral 
nature  ;  it  is  a  free,  not  a  mechanical  art.  And  this  is  es- 
pecially true  in  the  case  of  the  preacher ;  and  the  principle 
in  his  case  may  be  carried  still  higher,  and  the  assertion  may 
be  made,  that  no  man  can  be  a  genuine  preacher  of  God's 
word  who  is  not  in  some  sense  inspired  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 
As  to  the  question  sometimes  asked.  Is  not  rhetoric,  after  all, 
a  rherely  mental  power  or  shill,  which  is  afterward  deepened 
by  the  judgment  of  the  moral  sense,  or  the  acceptance  by 
the  moral  sense  of  the  purely  intellectual  conclusions  of  the 
mind  ?  That  may  be  true  in  the  technical  idea  of  rhetoric, 
but  in  the  deeper  view  of  it  which  we  have  endeavored  to 
bring  out,  we  would  answer,  no  ;  for  unless  the  whole  being 
enters  into  and  goes  to  make  up  the  orator,  his  moral  as 
well  as  intellectual  powers,  his  spirit  as  well  as  understand- 


202  PREACHING. 

ing,  he  cannot  arrive  at  genuine  convictions  of  truth  ;  these 
convictions  would  not  be  truly  his  own,  and  thus  they  would 
not  carr}'-  the  weight  with  them  of  personal  convictions. 
Eloquence  is  the  breath  and  force  of  the  man's  personality. 
It  is  the  whole  being  of  a  man  speaking.  Cicero  said  that 
''  one  might  simulate  philosophy,  but  not  eloquence."  Elo- 
quence is  something  more  than  mere  art ;  it  lies  in  the 
depths  of  moral  character.  "  L' eloquence  est  en  elle-meme 
un  trait  du  caractere  jplutot  qu^un  don  intellectuel."  ^ 

§  19.      Uses  and  Sources  of  liJietoric. 

Notwithstanding  the  noble  utility  of  the  rhetorical  art, 
rightly  understood,  there  are  popular  objections  to  the 
preacher's  study  of  rhetoric,  which  it  is  worth  while  to 
consider.  These  objections  may  be  comprised  in  some 
general  statement,  like  this  :  TJie  rules  of  rhetoric  neces- 
sarily contain  that  loJiich  is  wholly  human  and  artificial^ 
and  they  render  the  study  of  rhetoric  unworthy  of  the  si^n- 
plicity  of  the  preacher  of  divine  truth,  who  depends  on  the 
truth  itself,  and  on  the  Holy  Spirit,  for  the  true  results  of 
preaching . 

Even  the  true  orator,  it  is  said,  is  one  who  trusts  more 
to  nature  than  to  art,  and  who  has  the  least  of  art  in  his  elo- 
quence ;  and,  a  fortiori,  how  much  more  should  this  be  the 
case  with  the  preacher  of  divine  truth  ! 

In  one  sense  the  rules  of  rhetoric  are  artificial,  because 
they  concern  the  art  of  speaking  ;  but  they  are  not  artificial 
in  the  common  sense  of  the  term,  as  meaning  what  is  false. 
True  rhetoric  is  drawn  from  truth  and  nature.  It  is  the  dis- 
covery of  the  genuine  laws  of  persuasive  speech  among  living 
men  ;  and  it  is  simply  reducing  these  to  definite  principles. 
It  is  the  study  of  the  best  ways  which  nature  employs  to  com- 
municate and  impress  truth.    But  it  is  answered,  Why,  then, 

*  Vinet's  Histoire  de  la  Predication  des  R^formes,  etc.,  p.  673. 


§  19.      USES   AND   SOURCES   OF   RHETORIC.  .203 

make  rules  at  all  ?  Why  not  leave  rhetoric  to  nature  ?  This 
man  and  that  man  are  self-taught  orators,  who  never  studied 
a  volume  on  eloquence.  The  more  rules,  the  less  eloquence. 
It  is  true  there  are  men  of  native  eloquence,  who  have  not 
studied  the  art  in  books  ;  but  they  have  in  men,  in  nature,  in 
themselves.  This  has  been  the  case  with  many  distinguished 
Methodist  preachers ;  they  have  been  keen  students  of  the 
most  effective  use  of  motives  and  arguments,  and  even  of  ges- 
tures and  tones,  upon  the  passions.  There  is  nothing  artifi- 
cial about  that.  That  is  nature's  way ;  that  is  really  seeking 
the  truth  and  the  true  power  of  eloquent  speech.  It  is  true 
that  the  art  of  rhetoric  will  not  make  an  uneloquent  man  elo- 
quent :  this  is  not  the  teacher's  work,  and  is  beyond  his  ability. 
Rhetoric  will,  however,  make  an  effective  speaker  more  effec- 
tive, and  will  enable  any  man  of  good  abilities  to  become  a 
good  writer  and  speaker.  "  If  you  suppose  either  to  be  inde- 
pendent of  the  other,  nature  will  be  able  to  do  much  without 
learning,  but  learning  will  be  of  no  avail  without  the  assist- 
ance of  nature.  But  if  they  be  united  in  equal  points,  I 
shall  be  inclined  to  think  that,  when  both  are  but  moderate, 
the  influence  of  nature  is  nevertheless  the  greater ;  but  fin- 
ished orators,  I  consider,  owe  more  to  learning  than  to 
nature." ^ 

Rhetoric  will  not  furnish  a  man  with  thoughts,  but  it 
will  teach  a  man  how  to  use  his  thoughts ;  and  a  mind  that 
will  be  killed  by  good  rules  of  speaking  and  writing  can- 
not be  a  strong  mind,  and  such  a  mind  would  be  made 
pedantic  by  any  kind  of  knowledge. 

It  is  possible  that  rhetorical  studies  will  somewhat  repress 
natural  freedom,  and  there  may  be  a  sense  of  art  or  arti- 
ficiality produced;  but  this  must  soon  wear  off  when  the 
study  is  rightly  conducted,  and  when  a  man  is  resolved  by 
every  means  to  make  himself  an  effective  speaker.  He 
will  go  through  art  into  -nature,  and  be  all  the  stronger. 

^  Quintilian's  Instit.,  B.  II.,  c.  19. 


204.  PREACHrNG. 

And  what,  truly,  should  there  be  in  this  study,  rightly  con- 
ducted, to  injure  the  simplicity  of  the  preacher?  This  term 
"6•^w^/>?^6■^7y,"  as  used  in  the  New  Testament,  signifies  "  free- 
dom from  guile,"  and  "  singleness  of  heart  and  purpose,"  or, 
in  a  wider  sense,  "the  unperverted  teaching  of  the  gos- 
pel," rather  than  intellectual  simplicity  or  barrenness.  The 
preacher's  rhetorical  study  is  to  aid  him  to  give  the  truth  its 
true  force,  to  clear  it  of  what  is  false,  and  to  present  it  in 
its  real  simplicity  and  strength  to  the  mind.  "The  foolish- 
ness of  preaching"  is  not  "foolish  preaching,"  but  what  was 
esteemed  foolish  by  the  Greeks,  in  opposition  to  their  "wis- 
dom," viz.,  "the  preaching  of  the  cross."  It  was  not  the 
preaching,  but  the  subject  of  the  preaching,  that  was  foolish. 

But,  it  may  be  said,  if  the  preaclier  uses  the  aids  of 
rhetoric,  and  strives  to  make  himself  an  eloquent  speaker, 
does  he  not  put  himself  on  the  same  level  with  the  platform^ 
speaker?  The  difference  between  the  pulpit  and  platform 
is  deeper  than  a  mere  rhetorical  difference ;  for  the  preacher 
may  use  all  the  art  and  skill  that  the  platform-speaker  does, 
and  still  be  a  preacher  and  not  a  platform-orator.  The  great 
difference  between  the  two  is,  that  the  eloquence  of  the  plat- 
form-speaker ends  in  itself:  he  has  shown  his  power,  or 
he  has  gained  his  point;  but  the  eloquence  of  the  preacher 
ends  in  the  good  and  salvation  of  his  hearers ;  it  is  no  mere- 
ly personal  or  temporary  object.  The  platform-speaker 
strives  for  the  present  mastery,  amusement,  instruction,  or 
conviction  of  his  hearers,  and  human  powers  and  eloquence 
are  sufficient  for  the  production  of  that  effect ;  but  the  aim 
of  the  true  preacher  is  something  out  of  himself,  something 
enduring  and  eternal.  He  needs  more  than  his  own  powers 
for  this  ;  he  needs  something  more  than  human  eloquence. 

But  if  the  preacher  needs  something  more  than  human 
eloquence,  he  still  may  not  despise  anything  that  will  make 
him  more  effective  as  a  preacher.-  Nathan's  preaching  to 
David  was  a  piece  of  pure  rhetoric.  It  was  the  polished 
arrow  that  slew  the  king's  sin,  and  saved  his  soul  from  its 


§   19.       USES   AND   SOURCES   OF   RHETORIC.  205 

deadly  coil.  Paul's  use  of  the  illustration  of  the  Athenian 
altar  was  a  skilful  use  of  the  law  of  adaptation  in  rhetoric ; 
and  did  it  injure  the  moral  simplicity  of  his  speaking  ?  Apol- 
los  was,  undoubtedly,  well  trained  in  the  rhetorical  schools 
of  Alexandria.^ 

Upham  has  some  interesting  remarks  upon  the  proofs  that 
our  blessed  Saviour  himself  valued  mental  culture,  and  in 
his  human  nature  prepared  himself  for  the  work  of  his  min- 
istry by  thought  and  study  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures. 2 

As  to  the  most  important  bearing  of  the  objection  in 
regard  to  the  converting  poiver  of  divine  truth  accompanied 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  certainly  does  apply  in  full  force  to 
all  false  ideas  of  preaching,  where  the  human  element  is 
made  prominent,  and  the  divine  element  is  made  subor- 
dinate, or  is  lost  sight  of;  and  yet  the  fact  of  the  con- 
verting power  of  divine  truth,  or  that  all  renewing  power 
is  in  God  alone,  does  not  do  away  with  the  value  of  hu- 
man preaching.  ^^  I  have  planted,  ApoTlos  watered;  hut 
God  gave  the  increase.''  The  real  power  —  the  ultimate 
power  —  is  in  the  divine  causation,  yet  the  human  instru- 
mentality is  not  excluded.  It  is  true  that  if  God  does  not 
aid  the  preacher,  his  best  efforts  are  vain ;  and  if  God  also 
does  not  animate  and  fill  with  his  spirit  the  organization 
of  the  church,  the  church  is  a  useless  body ;  yet  this  is  not 
saying  that  the  preacher  and  the  church  are  not  needed,  and 
that  these  agencies  may  not,  and  should  not,  put  forth  all  the 
effort,  talent,  and  power  ^Zte?/  possess,  relying  on  divine  aid. 
If  one  should  carry  the  objection  to  an  unreasonable  extent, 
then  human  agency  in  the  conversion  of  men  would  be  ex- 
cluded, and  all  means  employed  for  men's  salvation  —  prayer 
as  well  as  preaching — would  be  vain.  This  has  been  the 
theory  of  some  who  have  pushed  their  views  to  an  extrava- 
gant pitch.     In  the  New  England  theological  controversy 

'  Conybeare  and  Howson's  Life  of  St.  Paul,  v.  ii.,  p.  6. 
*  Interior  Life,  p.  243. 

18  . 


206  PREACHING. 

on  "the  means  of  grace,"  half  a  century  since,  it  was  assert- 
ed on  the  one  side  that  the  text  ^'Consider  thy  ways"  was 
addressed  to  every  man  as  a  rational  and  moral  being,  who 
must  think  upon  his  duty  before  he  did  it ;  on  the  other 
side  it  was  regarded  as  a  thing  impossible,  or,  at  least,  in- 
admissible, for  an  impenitent  sinner  to  consider  his  ways, 
because  his  thoughts  would  be  depraved,  and  only  depraved, 
continually,  and  no  benefit,  but  only  evil,  would  come  of  it. 
But  human  efibrt  in  the  line  of  truth  and  duty,  and  for  the 
furtherance  and  proclamation  of  the  truth,  is  clearly  set  forth 
in  the  Scriptures.  Not  only  did  the  apostles  preach,  but  the 
Seventy,  and  others  who  were  not  endowed  with  miraculous 
gifts,  and  all  believers,  are  to  preach,  in  one  sense.  If  we 
object  to  preaching,  we  might  object  to  all  kinds  of  influence 
exerted  to  promote  religion,  and  difi'use  truth  among  men. 
And  if  we  admit  preaching,  it  should  be  the  best — the  best 
that  our  human  powers,  aided  by  culture  and  divine  grace, 
and  intent  upon  the  building  up  of  the  kingdom  of  God  in 
the  world,  can  produce.  The  simplicity  of  truth,  and  its 
converting  power,  are  destroyed,  not  by  its  running  through 
the  human  medium,  but  by  its  deliberate  falsification,  for 
selfish  and  earthly  ends.  As  one  is  not  defiled  by  eating 
with  unwashen  hands,  but  is  defiled  by  having  an  unclean 
heart,  so  the  truth  is  not  corrupted  by  being  taken  into  sin- 
ful human  hands,  and  thus  dispensed ;  but  it  is  corrupted 
by  passing  through  an  unbelieving  and  false  mind.  And 
the  simplicity  of  the  truth  may  be  also  injured  by  the  preach- 
er's trusting  to  his  own  eloquence  to  produce  conviction,  and 
not  to  the  word  and  Spirit  of  God.  But  no  true  preacher 
does  this ;  for  he  considers  the  gift  of  God  to  be  intrusted 
to  an  earthen  vessel  ^'that  the  excellence  of  the  glory  may 
he  of  God,  and  not  of  man'"'  He  trusts  wholly  to  the 
divine  spirit. 

What,  then,  to  the  preacher  of  divine  truth,  are  some  of 
the  legitimate  uses  of  rhetoric  f 

1.  It  prevents  the  waste  of  mental  energy. 


§  19.      USES   AND   SOURCES   OF   RHETORIC.  207 

Many  preachers,  though  fertile  in  thought,  are  troubled 
in  arranging  their  materials.  They  are  apt  to  go  over  too 
much  ground.  Their  ideas  are  not  sufficiently  compacted ; 
they  are  ineffectively  marshalled,  making  a  mob,  and  not 
an  army.  Their  sermons  often  are  theological  treatises, 
small  books.  They  waste  their  mental  store,  and  do  not 
get  a  due  return  for  their  outlay.  Rhetoric  teaches  how 
to  husband  our  resources  ;  how  to  methodize  and  condense ; 
how  to  make  the  most  of  what  we  have  ;  how  to  say  enough 
upon  a  subject,  and  to  say  it  most  forcibly. 

2.  It  gives  accuracy  to  logical  "processes. 

Rhetoric  aids  us  to  think,  as  well  as  to  write.  It  helps  one 
to  become  master  of  his  mind  and  of  his  mental  resources ; 
to  regulate  his  processes  of  thought ;  to  start  them  readily 
from  certain  fixed  centres,  and  to  follow  them  along  certain 
defined  lines.  The  mind  is  invigorated  by  the  study  of  rhet- 
oric and  logic.  It  acquires  thereby  a  finer  edge.  A  trained 
rhetorician  who  is  also  a  logician  (for  the  two  should  go 
together)  will  not  be  apt  to  lay  hold  of  the  wrong  end  or 
the  tough  end  of  a  question  first,  but  he  will  advance  upon 
it  with  an  increasing  force  and  impetus,  that  carry  him 
through  its  difficulties.  A  proper  arrangement  and  method 
in  thinking,  aid  one  to  think.  No  extent  of  knowledge  or 
brilliancy  of  imagination  can  make  up  for  inaccurate  habits 
of  thought.  In  order  to  write  or  speak  well,  one  must  first 
think  well.  He  must  know  how  to  analyze,  to  resolve  a 
subject  into  its  parts,  to  search  its  depths.  The  preacher 
should  have  depth  as  well  as  breadth.  He  should  aim  first 
at  true  thinking,  and  then  he  will  come  to  original  think- 
ing ;  for  rhetoric,  while  it  regulates  thought,  does  not  repress 
originality. 

3.  It  opens  the  power  of  language. 

The  use  of  language  is  a  fit  study  for  the  preacher,  whose 
duty  it  is  to  interpret  the  meaning  and  force  of  the  words 
chosen  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  communicate  truth.  The 
Preacher  ^^  sought  to  find  out  acceptable  words."     Language 


208  PREACHING. 

is  thought's  instrument.  By  it  we  not  only  communicate 
light,  but  life,  to  other  minds.  Through  language,  soul  acts 
on  soul,  A  preacher  should  understand  the  hidden  powers 
of  language ;  and  here,  perhaps,  is  one  of  the  failures  of 
the  modern  pulpit.  The  old  preachers,  especially  the  old 
English  divines,  were  men  of  vast  learning,  who  knew  and 
felt  the  force  of  language,  and  such  preachers  as  Bunyan 
and  Flavel,  who  were  not  scholars,  yet  had  attained  to  ex- 
traordinary force  and  purity  of  idiomatic  English.  The 
sermons  of  Bishop  Andrewes,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  are  wonderful  for  their  nervous  Saxon 
English. 

Rhetoric  comprises  the  whole  field  of  linguistic  and  lit- 
erary criticism  —  the  rich  field  of  language,  of  the  mighty 
power  of  words  as  the  instrument  of  thought ;  and  the  most 
skilful  and  powerful  use  of  language  can  be  acquired  only 
through  the  study  of  this  wide  and  varied  field. 

4.  It  increases  the  ability  of  the  speaker  to  carry  convic- 
tion to  other  minds. 

Whately  makes  a  just  observation  when  he  says  that  true 
rhetoric  is  not  "aw  art  of  producing  conviction,  but  it  is  the 
art  of  doing  so."  It  is  finding  out,  not  the  best,  but  the 
only  way  by  which  conviction  must  be  produced.  It  is,  in 
Whately's  language,  ^'investigating  the  causes  of  the  success 
of  all  who  do  produce  conviction  in  ivriting  and  speaking  J'^  ^ 

5.  It  prevents  the  preacher'' s  usefulness  from  being  de- 
stroyed by  little  things. 

Preachers  of  genuine  zeal  and  good  abilities  are  often 
hindered  in  their  usefulness  by  some  insignificant  thing, 
of  which  the  simplest  rhetorical  culture  would  make  them 
aware.  Inaptness  or  inversion  of  style,  a  grotesque  or  awk- 
ward delivery,  an  unfortunate  gesture,  a  nasal  twang,  a  dry- 
ness or  dulness  in  the  treatment  of  vital  themes,  —  some 
little  thing,  which  could  be  remedied,  will  keep  a  good  and 
perhaps  able  man  tied  like  a  slave  to  the  wheel  all  his  life. 

'  Whately's  Rhetoric,  Intro.,  §  4. 


§  19.       USES   AND   SOURCES    OF   RHETORIC.  209 

Let  US  now  consider  some  of  the  sources  of  rhetoric. 
They  are  threefold :  Nature,  Good  Models,  and  Books. 

1.  Nature.  The  preacher  may  learn  from  a  child  the 
first  principles  of  the  laws  of  rhetoric;  e.  g.,  directness. 
A  little  child,  in  making  his  wants  known,  and  in  carrying 
his  point,  will  use  the  most  direct  method.  He  will  express 
his  wish  in  the  fewest  words.  He  will  employ  the  strong- 
est argument  or  motive  which  he  is  capable  of  employing, 
and  which  (how  often  it  happens  !)  is  strong  enough  to  carry 
his  point.  Where  there  is  a  pressure  on  the  mind  of  the 
humblest  and  rudest  person,  there  is  often  a  vivid  force  in 
his  way  of  expressing  himself,  which  is  eloquent.  A  poor 
woman  who  has  five  minutes  allowed  her  at  your  door  will 
make  her  case  stand  in  the  strongest  light ;  for  she  will  say 
nothing  unessential,  or  will  leave  nothing  unsaid ;  she  will 
arrange  her  story  (her  oration)  in  a  way  fitted  to  produce 
instant  conviction,  arouse  pity,  and  will  gain  her  end. 

Nature  is  to  be  studied  in  men.  The  words  and  argu- 
ments of  men  engaged  in  the  common  business  of  life,  if 
they  have  less  abstruse  depth,  have  often  more  practical 
weight  and  point  than  those  of  the  most  highly  educated 
men,  in  whose  minds  the  varied  and  abstract  relations  of  a 
given  truth  habitually  present  themselves.  The  expressions 
of  such  men  have  a  rough,  powerful  rhetoric.  General 
Sheridan's  famous  speech  at  the  fight  of  Winchester  was 
a  thousand  times  more  effective  than  all  the  fine-turned 
sentences  that  were  ever  elaborated.  President  Lincoln's 
address  at  Gettysburg  is  a  noble  example  of  the  eloquent 
condensation  of  thought  and  sentiment  there  may  be  in  brief 
and  simple  language.  The  man  who  is  always  living  in 
books,  and  upon  dead  men's  ideas,  should  strive  to  catch 
something  of  this  homely,  vivid  force  of  living  men's  every- 
day words  and  thoughts.  Above  all,  he  should  study  his 
own  nature,  as  a  source  of  rhetorical  knowledge  and  power. 
He  should  carefully  watch  his  own  mind,  and  observe  how 
he  is  affected  by  the  arguments  of  others,  and  by  what  kind 
18* 


210  PREACHING. 

of  ariruments ;  what  are  the  motives  which  move  him  most 
deeply  and  reach  him  most  quickly  ;  what  forms  of  expres- 
sion are  most  striking,  and  what  most  pathetic ;  he  should 
ask  himself  how,  when,  and  why  he  is  most  moved  by  the 
speaking  of  others,  and  what  kind  of  speakers  do  most 
move  him. 

2.  Good  models.  Living  models  are  best,  because  they 
come  nearest  to  nature.  Some  preachers  frequent  the 
courts,  to  study  the  most  direct  modes  of  persuasive  rea- 
soning ;  yet  their  best  models  are  preachers.  By  a  study 
of  true  models  we  tend  imperceptibly  to  grow  like  them  ; 
as,  if  one  should  gaze  half  an  hour  every  day  upon  the 
Apollo  Belvedere,  he  would  show  it  in  the  carriage  of  his 
head,  and  the  new  dignity  which  would  be  breathed  into 
his  whole  mien.  But  in  studying  models,  it  is  only  the 
general  residt  that  should  be  aimed  at,  and  not  the  minute, 
literal  copy.  "  Turpe  etiam  illud  est,  contention  esse  id  con- 
sequi  quod  imiteris."  ^  Every  one  should  jealously  guard 
his  individuality,  and  should  diligently  strive  to  retain  his 
natural  style,  that  good  thing,  that  native  force  or  facility 
which  belongs  to  him,  only  corrected  of  its  faults,  and  en- 
riched by  good  examples.  No  orator  or  preacher,  let  him 
be  the  greatest,  is  indeed  a  perfect  model  for  our  imitation, 
or  combines  in  himself  all  excellences ;  neither  is  any  great 
orator  or  speaker,  as  Quintilian  has  truly  said,  imitable  in 
those  things  —  his  genius,  invention,  force,  facility — which 
especially  make  him  great;  for  those  things  are  inborn, 
individual,  spiritual,  and  escape  the  power  of  all  imitation. 

One  should  not  only  read  the  sermons  of  the  best  preach- 
ers, but  study  them,  analyze  them,  sentence  by  sentence 
and  word  by  word,  searching  patiently,  laboriouslj^  deter- 
minedly, to  come  at  their  sources  of  power.  It  is  a  good 
plan  to  take  a  condensed  writer  like  Bishop  Butler,  and, 
after  reading  a  page  two  or  three  times,  to  rewrite  it  in  our 
own  language,  and  carefully  note  the  differences  in  the  two 

'  Quintilian's  Inst.,  Lib.  X.,  De  Imitatione, 


§  19.       USES   AND   SOURCES   OF   RHETORIC.  211 

modes  of  expressing  the  same  ideas.  Thus  we  should  ex- 
periment and  experiment,  till  we  catch  something  of  the 
condensed  energy  of  one,  the  perspicuity  of  another,  the 
fire  of  another.  And,  not  confining  ourselves  to  the  study 
of  the  best  writers  and  speakers  in  our  own  profession,  we 
may  extend  our  critical  reading  to  the  historian,  the  poet, 
the  orators  of  antiquity,  and  to  all  the  fields  of  literature. 
The  study  of  Shakspeare  is  a  spring  of  endlessly  fruitful 
suggestion  in  the  art  of  composition.  A  young  preacher 
might  always  have  on  hand  some  author,  and  especially 
religious  author,  of  first-rate  excellence,  not  only  as  regards 
matter,  but  style  ;  for  the  formation  of  a  clear,  forcible  style 
is  a  severe  process  ;  and  as  no  man  can  learn  to  paint  with- 
out a  continual  use  of  the  brush,  so  no  man  can  learn  to 
write  and  speak  well  without  a  continual  use  of  the  pen. 
3.  Books.  We  have  anticipated  this  source  of  rhetorical 
instruction  and  suggestion  under  the  last  head  ;  but  we  refer 
now  more  particularly  to  books  upon  the  special  art  of  rhet- 
oric and  homiletics.  There  are  four  works  among  ancient 
authors  that  may  be  considered  to  form  the  head  sources  of 
the  rhetorical  art :  Aristotle's  Rhetoric  and  Poetic,  Cicero 
De  Oratore,  Quintilian^s  Institutes,  Horace^s  Ars  Poetica. 
The  principles  of  eloquence  and  style,  drawn  originally 
from  nature,  and  illustrated  by  the  best  examples  of  Greek 
and  Roman  orator}^  are  reduced  by  these  writers,  for  the 
first  time,  and  one  might  say  for  all  time,  to  a  science. 
Aristotle,  highly  condensed  and  obscurely  elementary,  plants 
the  seeds  which  in  Cicero  and  Quintilian  bear  ripe  fruits ; 
in  fact,  all  that  has  been  since  taught  on  the  subject  of  elo- 
quence is  but  a  reproduction  or  development  of  what  those 
old  authors  say.  The  eloquence  of  the  pulpit,  however, 
presents  a  new  field,  which,  though  it  draws  from  the  com- 
mon principle  of  rhetoric,  has  laws  of  its  own  that  are  de- 
rived from  a  higher  source  than  human  thought  or  wisdom. 
In  addition  to  works  on  homiletics  in  various  languages, 
there  are  especially  the  sermons  of  great  preachers,  which 


212  PREACHING. 

represent  the  diflferent  types  and  epochs  of  prenching,  in 
various  languages,  which  form  in  themselves  an  ample  field 
of  homiletical  literature  and  study.  In  addition  to  those 
of  modern,  or  comparatively  modern,  times,  there  are  the 
sermons  of  the  ancient  preachers  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
churches  —  the  discourses  of  Chrysostomy  Basil,  Gregory 
of  JSfazianzen,  Gregory  of  JVyssa,  and  Cyril  among  the 
Greeks,  and  of  Ambrose  and  Augustine  among  the  Latins. 
Five  hundred  and  ninety-four  sermons  of  Augustine  are 
extant ;  and  through  their  ancient  garb  of  the  Latin  lan- 
guage, the  fire  and  living  soul  of  the  true  preacher  of  Christ 
still  glow. 

Whatever  there  is  in  philosophy  and  literature  which 
has  to  do  with  the  orator's  power  may  be  studied  to  advan- 
tage :  but  above  all,  let  the  young  preacher  strive  to  gain  a 
thorough  homiletical  training,  not  trusting  entirely  to  books 
or  to  the  teacher,  but  availing  himself  of  every  suggestion, 
from  every  source,  to  improve  himself  in  the  art  of  preach- 
ing. And  after  all,  the  greatest  source  of  rhetorical  power 
and  rhetorical  training  is  speaking.  Practice  in  preaching 
is  the  best  way  to  make  the  good  preacher.  He  who  would 
hit  the  mark  must  shoot  at  the  mark.  He  who  would  move 
men  by  preaching  must  preach  so  as  to  move  them.  He 
who  would  overcome  the  difficulties  of  preaching  must  meet 
them  in  the  presence  of  living  men,  in  the  act  of  speaking, 
on  the  field  where  difficulties  present  themselves. 

§  20.     Use  of  Reasoning  to  the  Preacher,  ^ 

So  far  as  reasoning  comes  under  the  department  of  rhet- 
oric (and  Whately,  we  have  seen,  makes  rhetoric  to  consist 
mainly  of  the  art  of  reasoning,  or  to  be  identical  with  it)  ; 
and  inasmuch  as  logic,  in  the  present  enlarged  conception  of 
the  term,  is  held  to  be  the  science  of  the  laws  of  thought, 
and  includes  in  it  all  the  forms  and  methods  of  thinking, 
the  true  idea  of  our  mental  conceptions  and  judgments, 


§  20.      USE   OF   REASONING  TO   THE   PREACHER.  213 

and  the  principles  of  right  reasoning ;  it  becomes  essential 
to  the  preacher  to  consider  this,  or  at  least  to  be  stimulated 
to  the  careful  study  of  this  manly  science.  We  would  aim 
only  to  indicate  the  importance  of  this  study  to  the  preacher, 
as  a  legitimate  source  of  power. 

Coleridge's  definition  of  reaso7i  is  useful  and  ennobling 
to  the  preacher,  who  has  to  deal  with  those  truths  which  are 
comprehended  through  the  exercise  of  the  highest  faculties. 
"  Reason  is  the  power  hy  which  we  are  enabled  to  draw  from 
particular  and  contingent  appearances  universal  and  neces- 
sary conclusions.''''  ^ 

As  further  explained,  reason  is  the  prime  source  of  neces- 
sary and  universal  ideas — ideas  which  are  above  the  phe- 
nomenal world  of  sense  ;  it  is,  in  fine,  the  faculty  that  deals 
with  pure  ideas,  and  it  appeals  to  itself  alone,  to  its  own 
intuitions  and  judgments,  as  the  substance  and  ground  of 
ideas.  It  is  thus,  according  to  Coleridge,  that  faculty  in 
man  which  rises  above  the  sphere  of  the  mere  intellect  judg- 
ing by  sense,  or  the  logical  understanding,  and  enables  him 
to  arrive  at  absolute  truths. 

Taking  care  not  to  let  this  transcendental  definition  of 
reason  usurp  the  place  of  that  higher  teaching  or  inward 
communication  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  by  which  alone  we  can 
spiritually,  and  thus  truly,  comprehend  divine  truth,  we 
do  indeed  perceive  that  there  is  in  man  a  higher  nature,  that 
transcends  the  mere  logical  intellect.  It  is  a  foculty  which 
judges  d  priori,  which  is  capable  of  grasping  absolute 
ideas,  and  which,  to  a  certain  extent,  possesses  intuitive 
insight.  In  the  world  of  faith,  and  in  the  discussion  of 
Christian  truth,  this  higher  exercise  of  the  reason  is  impor- 
tant, for  Christianity  is  a  rational  religion ;  that  is,  it  cor- 
responds to  those  universal  laws  and  principles  of  truth 
that  raise  themslves  above  change,  that  are  common  to 
rational  intelligences,  and  that  are  fixed  in  the  constitution 

1  Coleridge's  Works,  Shedd's  ed.,  vol.  i.,  p.  251,  et  al. 


214  PREACHING. 

of  things.  We  should  not  be  afraid  of  reason — that  is, 
of  this  higher  conception  of  reason  —  in  the  things  of  foith. 
If  reason  alone  cannot  arrive  at  divine  truth,  or  truly  com- 
prehend it,  divine  truth,  nevertheless,  speaks  to  the  highest 
reason  in  man,  and  lets  itself  down,  as  far  as  it  can, 
into  its  congenial  and  assimilated  sphere.  And  as  "  the 
word,"  0  Uyog,  of  which  the  preacher  is  the  servant  and  min- 
ister, is,  above  all,  the  divine  reason^  the  preacher  should 
know  the  place  and  functions  of  reason ;  for  he  cannot  keep 
divine  truth  confined  in  the  arena  of  the  mere  understanding  ; 
it  will  burst  from  human  definitions  and  propositions  ;  it  will 
not  abide  the  test  of  mere  word-argument ;  it  cannot  be  dis- 
covered by  the  syllogistic  method.  It  may  indeed  be  meth- 
odized and  systematized,  and  thus  more  easily  be  grasped 
by  the  logical  faculty ;  but  it  belongs  rather  to  the  sphere 
of  "rationalized  intellect,"  in  which,  through  the  power  of 
holy  contemplation,  in  communion  with  the  mind  and  spirit 
of  God,  the  truth  is  clearly  known.  And  the  preacher 
should  endeavor  to  evoke  this  higher  faculty  of  reason  in 
the  hearer.  He  should  strive  to  show  that  there  is  no  real 
conflict  between  faith  and  reason,  but  that  the  truths  of 
faith,  which  belong  to  a  world  above  the  natural  and  sensu- 
ous, appeal  to  that  power  in  man  which  apprehends  rational 
and  universal  truths  —  truths  eternal  as  God's  nature.  Such 
reasoning,  therefore,  as  this,  which  calls  into  exercise  the 
highest  nature  of  man,  is  the  prerogative  of  the  preacher 
of  divine  truth.  This  is  his  noble  province,  peculiar  to 
him.  And  in  all  lower  kinds  of  reasoning,  as  it  is  com- 
monly understood,  in  which  the  logical  understanding  may 
be  chiefly  employed,  the  preacher  should  never  lose  sight 
of  the  influence  and  the  exercise  of  this  higher  power  of 
the  reason. 

We  would  now  say  a  few  words  upon  some  of  the  uses 
of  reasoning  to  the  preacher,  regarding  reasoning  here  in 
the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term,  as  the  method  of  persuasion 


§  20.   USE  OF  REASONING  TO  THE  PREACHER.    215 

by  proof,  or  argument.     Of  these  uses  iu  cultivating  the 
reasoning  faculties,  the  first  we  would  mention  is,  — 

(1.)  To  give  a  Icnowledge  of  the  2)oivers  and  iiecessary 
laws  of  the  mind  in  thought.  Without  some  training  iu  the 
art  of  thinking,  one  could  hardly  presume  to  be  a  public 
teacher  or  speaker.  The  preacher  should  know  how  to 
think.  He  should  know  what  thought  is,  as  far  as  it  can 
be  known,  both  in  its  origin,  in  the  cognitive  faculties  of 
intuition,  perception,  imagination,  and  in  its  evolution 
through  the  elaborative  or  discursive  faculties.  He  should 
have  some  clear  idea  of  the  formation  of  distinct  judg- 
ments, out  of  the  region  of  consciousness.  Then,  hav- 
iug  gained  the  materials  of  thought,  he  should  know  how 
to  build  upon  them,  by  following  out  the  laws  of  logical 
method,  and  step  by  step,  through  new  identifications  and 
comparisons  of  relations,  he  should  arrive  at  higher  and 
wider  results.  He  should  understand  the  laws  of  reasoning y 
by  which,  whether  through  the  briefer  method  of  inference, 
or  the  more  complex  one  of  syllogistic  reasoning,  certain 
products  are  reached.  Thought,  while  free,  yet  has  its 
laws,  which  are  as  invariable  as  the  laws  of  the  physical 
world.  It  is  by  walking  in  the  narrow  way,  that,  intellec- 
tually speaking,  we  come  into  the  kingdom  of  truth.  A 
man  may  have  transient  perceptions  of  truth,  and  brilliant, 
though  vague  intuitions ;  but  he  can  make  little  sure  prog- 
ress in  the  investigation  and  discovery  of  truth,  unless  he 
is  able  from  one  clear  judgment  of  the  mind,  or  two  distinct 
judgments,  to  evolve,  by  a  movement  of  thought,  a  new 
though  commonly  related  judgment ;  and  this  is  the  simple 
process  of  reasoning.  We  cannot  enter  into  the  subject ; 
but,  as  preachers  and  reasoners,  we  should  acquaint  ourselves 
with  the  names  and  processes  of  the  science  of  reasoning, 
for  its  very  names  and  forms  are  intimately  connected  with 
its  processes.  We  thus  gain  a  clearer  idea  of  the  great  laws 
of  thought,  and  through  thought  we  verify  and  build  up  truth. 
Using  it  as  an  instrument,  we  go  forth  into  the  fields  of  the 


216  PREACHING. 

physical  and  spiritual  world,  and  construct  systems  out  of 
the  materials  they  furnish.  In  this  way  alone  we  can  in- 
telligently teach  truth  ;  and  the  preacher  is,  above  all,  a 
teacher.  We  would  add,  under  this  head,  a  word  as  to 
the  two  simple  and  fundamental  principles  of  all  think- 
ing, and  into  which  all  true  reasoning  resolves  itself,  name- 
ly, rtna?ysz6' and  s?/n^7iesz6'.  (a.)  Analysis.  This  process  is 
that  of  a  whole  to  a  part.  It  reduces  a  truth  to  its  elements, 
proving  separately  its  diflferent  terms  and  conclusions,  and 
examining  its  groundwork  and  foundations.  This  is  always 
an  intensely  interesting  process  to  the  human  mind,  and  to 
the  common  mind.  There  will  always  be  eager  listeners  to  a 
preacher  who  takes  a  truth,  even  so  repulsive  a  truth  as  that 
of  human  sinfulness,  and  anal3^zes  it  with  power  and  skill, 
and  who  thus  gradually  leads  the  mind  from  the  outward  to 
the  inward  truth,  from  the  abstract  statement  to  the  con- 
crete substance,  and  from  the  nature  of  sin  itself  to  the 
nature  of  the  human  act  of  sin,  and  all  that  it  involves  and 
bears  along  with  it.  A  preacher  who  has  not  disciplined  his 
mind  to  this  analyzing  process  is  always  liable  to  be  tripped 
up  by  some  strong-minded  reasoner  in  his  congregation. 
His  proposition  is  declared  to  be  an  apparent,  and  not  true, 
conclusion  from  his  premises,  or  his  argument  totally  fails 
to  touch  this  or  that  objection  which  reaches  down  deeper 
still,  {b.)  Sytithesis.  This  process  is  that  from  a  part  to  a 
whole.  It  divides  off,  or  draws  off,  separately,  that  point 
of  agreement  in  several  objects  which  we  can  designate  by 
some  common  term.  Thus,  gradually,  some  general  foot, 
or  general  principle,  which  belongs  in  common  to  all  these 
objects,  or  classes  of  objects,  may  be  eliminated,  and  higher 
and  higher  levels  of  truth,  more  and  more  nearly  approach- 
ing the  nature  of  pure  laws,  or  a  jjrioi^i  truths,  may  be 
arrived  it.  This  is  a  great  power  in  a  preacher,  and  lifts 
him  at  once  above  the  level  of  those  men  who  can  never  rise 
out  of  a  circle  of  conventional  ideas,  nor  venture  upon  new 
and  independent  views  of  truth ;  whose  stock  in  trade  con- 


§  20.   USE  OF  REASONING  TO  THE  PREACHER.    217 

sists  entirely  of  the  conclusions  of  otlier  minds.  The  mov- 
ing power  of  reasoning  depends  mainly  upon  this  power  of 
generalization,  of  rising  from  one  conclusion  to  another, 
and  bearing  along  the  mind  of  the  hearer  in  a  living  and 
commanding  process  of  argumentation,  in  which  truth  is 
made  to  develop  its  grander  forces  and  its  wider  circles  of 
thought  and  proof.  Nothing  is  more  useful  than  this  power 
of  generalization  to  a  preacher  who  derives  his  themes  of 
instruction  from  the  word  of  God ;  who  must,  for  the  pur- 
poses of  instruction,  or  in  order  to  give  unit}'^  to  his  instruc- 
tion, seek  to  devise  out  of  various  members  and  parts  of  a 
passage,  one  truth,  one  .main  lesson,  one  clear  proposition, 
which  he  is  to  illustrate  and  enforce. 

(2.)  To  develop  truth  in  an  orderly  manner.  Truth  is 
orderly.  Being  the  child  of  the  supreme  reason,  truth  must 
have  an  essential  order,  and  certain  unalterable  proportions, 
which,  if  destroyed  or  disarranged,  cease  to  have  power.  The 
gospel  is  a  system  of  truth  going  out  from  a  living  centre, 
governed  by  one  law  of  development,  and  wonderful  in  its 
adaptation  to  the  human  mind.  It  is  bringing  the  infinite 
into  the  bounds  of  the  finite.  In  order,  therefore,  that  it 
may  have  its  full  influence  and  transforming  power  upon 
the  mind,  it  should  be  made  to  stand  before  the  mind  in 
something  of  its  original  symmetry.  The  basis  of  all  true 
preaching,  or  sermonizing,  is  this  deeply-meditated  and 
orderly  development  of  Christian  truth.  The  subject-matter 
of  edifying  and  instructive  preaching  is  the  thorough  dis- 
cussion of  those  great  principles  of  truth  in  their  real  har- 
mony of  proportions,  which,  taken  together,  form  the  body 
of  Christian  doctrine.  This  kind  of  thoughtful  reasoning 
must  constitute  Avhat  has  been  called  ^' the  spinal  column" 
of  every  true  sermon.  Other  things  are  adjuncts  ;  but  here 
is  the  bone  and  substance  of  preaching.  Compact,  orderly 
discussion  should  occupy  the  main  body  of  almost  every 
discourse  from  the  pulpit.  "It  is  order,"  Vinet  says,  "which 
constitutes  discourse.  The  difference  between  a  common 
19 


218  PEEACHING. 

orator  and  an  eloquent  man  is  often  nothing  but  a  difference 
in  respect  to  disposition."  This  ^Hiicidus  ordo"  this  true 
method  in  discourse,  is  essential  to  the  teacher  of  truth. 
Method  aids  us  to  arrive  at  the  end  at  which  we  aim,  by 
applying  the  principles  of  the  true  development  of  thought 
to  the  investigation  and  confirmation  of  truth.  Tlie  materi- 
als of  truth,  derived  from  the  higher  intuitions  of  reason, 
the  phenomena  of  consciousness,  the  observations  of  the 
senses,  and  the  evidence  of  testimony,  especially  that  of 
the  Scriptures,  are  organized,  verified,  and  established, 
through  the  laws  of  methodical  reasoning.  Thus  we  do 
not  compose  vaguely,  which  is  composing  without  thought. 
We  do  not  snatch  up  slight  impressions  or  suggestions,  and 
discuss  them  without  grasp  or  depth ;  but  by  the  applica- 
tion of  true  principles  of  definition,  division,  and  reason- 
ing, we  verify  our  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  arrange 
and  dispose  it  in  a  clear  method ;  and  we  are  thus  able  to 
teach  it ;  for  "  one  does  not  really  know  a  truth  until  he 
can  teach  it." 

While  divine  truth  does  not  depend  upon  any  process  of 
reasoning,  but  upon  direct  revelation,  and  upon  the  teaching 
of  God's  spirit  to  the  heart,  yet  by  the  tests  and  criteria 
of  inductive  reasoning,  hypothesis,  analogy,  and  the  last 
analyses  and  relations  of  truth,  its  harmonies  are  brought 
out,  its  groundwork  is  laid  bare,  and  it  is  presented  to  the 
mind  in  such  a  way  that  the  reason  bows,  and  the  conscience 
is  convicted.  Great  preachers  have  been  great  reasoners  ; 
not,  perhaps,  all  of  them,  in  the  scientific  methods  of  strict 
logic,  but  in  the  clear  development  of  the  foundation  prin- 
ciples of  doctrine,  and  in  that  method  of  persuasion  which 
the  heart  teaches  to  the  true  preacher.  Jonathan  Edwards 
reasoned  so  forcibly  that  his  hearers  thought  God  was  speak- 
ing to  them  through  him,  as,  indeed,  he  was  ;  for  he  grasped 
fundamental  principles,  and  so  entered  into  them,  that  while 
he  himself  was  hidden,  he  shook  the  consciences  of  men  by 
the  pure  power  of  truth.     A  greater  than  Edwards,  or  than 


§  20.   USE  or  REASONING  TO  THE  PREACHER.    219 

Calvin,  among  human  preachers,  was  the  apostle  Paul,  who 
was,  above  all,  a  reasoner.  "ZTe  reasoned  of  righteousness, 
temperance,  and  judgment  to  come."  He  was,  according  to 
the  pagan  Louginus,  a  dialectician  of  the  first  order.  He 
convinced  the  reason  and  carried  the  heart.  He  was  not  a 
dogmatic  reasoner,  or  a  mere  logician  and  ""doctrinaire^^ 
but  he  appealed  to  received  principles  of  reasoning,  to  argu- 
ments that  had  a  universal  applicability,  and  to  eternal  truths 
in  the  constitution  of  his  hearers'  minds.  He  did  not  ask 
them  to  believe  anything  which  he  did  not  show  them  to 
be  right,  and  which,  therefore,  ought  to  be  believed,  and 
which  he  himself  believed.  How  fundamental  were  the 
great  themes  of  his  preaching,  reaching  to  those  questions 
which  enter  into  the  nature  of  God  and  the  divine  origin 
of  man — predestination  and  election,  the  corruption  of 
human  nature  by  sin,  grace  and  the  atonement,  justification 
by  faith  and  sauctification  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  building 
up  of  the  soul  in  a  holy  life,  and  the  spiritual  kingdom  of 
Christ !  This  kind  of  doctrinal  preaching,  dealing  with  fun- 
damental truths,  ribbed  and  clamped  with  manly  argument, 
and  filled  with  the  breathings  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  warm 
afiections  of  the  heart,  is  a  kind  of  preaching  which  is  power- 
ful, and  which  lasts.  Argument  forms  the  basis  of  interest 
with  the  popular  mind,  and  it  is  the  staple  method  of  deal- 
ing with  and  influencing  mind.  Appeals  to  the  feelings,  and 
all  kinds  of  "  sensational  preaching,"  soon  wear  out ;  but 
plain,  sensible,  and  comprehensive  reasoning,  without  the 
pedantry  of  the  logician,  or  the  hardness  of  the  metaphysi- 
cian, always  has  power  with  the  great  mass  of  common- 
sense,  intelligent  hearers.  A  sermon  which  has  nothing  of 
this  element  of  thoughtful  argumentation  in  it  rarely  makes 
an  enduring  impression,  because  it  does  not  reach  the  depths 
of  the  subject,  or  the  depths  of  the  mind.  It  ruflies  the 
top  waves  ;  it  does  not  go  down  into  the  springs  of  thought 
or  motive.  A  preacher  should  be  able  to  treat  of  the 
fundamental  nature  of  moral  evidence,  and  to  reason  in  a 


220  PREACHING. 

forcible  manner  upon  the  subject  of  moral  truth  as  related 
to  human  responsibility.  No  amount  of  fine  writing,  daz- 
zling declamation,  or  even  pathetic  appeal,  can  atone  for 
the  absence  of  sound  reasoning  in  a  sermon.  It  need  not, 
and  should  not,  be  technically  theological,  nor  be  continued 
wearisomely;  but  there  can  be  little  true  eloquence  without 
it.  Truth,  which  is  the  converting  agency,  is  not  honored 
if  it  is  not  carefully  developed,  and  if  this  thoughtful, 
orderly  setting  forth  of  truth  do  not  form  the  basis  of  the 
sermon.     This  forms  the  positive  element  in  preaching. 

(3.)  To  lodge  truth  firmly  in  men's  minds.  Reasoning 
is  not  mere  philosophy,  which  is  the  manifestation  of  the 
essential  nature  of  things.  But  true  reasoning  is  rather 
the  manifestation  or  exhibition  of  truth  for  the  purpose  of 
immediate  persuasion  and  practical  good.  A  true  preacher's 
reasoning  aims  to  lodge  truth  in  men's  minds.  Even  logic, 
truly  defined,  is  the  method  of  directing  the  intellectual 
powers  in  the  investigation  of  truth,  and  its  communication 
to  other  minds.  The  hist  is  as  important  as  the  first ;  it  is 
the  essential  thing  in  true  reasoning.  While  the  preacher, 
then,  may  philosophize  in  reasoning,  he  cannot  remain  in 
philosophy,  but  must  bring  the  truth  out  into  the  sphere 
of  human  responsibility.  He  should  not  be  satisfied  with 
merely  demonstrating  truth,  but  he  should  seek,  as  far  as 
human  powers  can  do  this,  to  apply  it  to  the  human  mind 
according  to  the  laws  of  the  mind :  for  if  these  laws  be 
observed  in  reasoning,  the  truth  must  be  accepted,  at  least 
intellectually,  and  this  is  a  great  thing  gained.  The  princi- 
ples of  reasoning  are  the  same  in  all  minds.  The  process 
of  producing  conviction  is  the  same,  though  there  are  im- 
mense differences  in  reasoning  power.  There  is  but  one 
way  by  which  the  mind  is  convinced  of  the  truth,  and  be- 
comes subjected  to  it.  And  divine  truth  itself  is  not  to  be 
taken  out  of  this  category,  though  influences  of  a  super- 
natural nature  are  superadded,  for  the  purpose  of  awaken- 
ing the  dormant  or  dead  energies  of  the  mind.     The  Holv 


§  20.   USE  OF  KEASONING  TO  THE  PREACHER.    221 

Spirit  is  not  given  because  we  have  not  all  the  rational  power 
needed  to  be  convinced  by  the  truth,  but  it  is  added  because 
we  will  not  use  the  power  and  receive  the  truth.  We  should 
do  our  best  to  convince  men  of  the  truth,  and  leave  it  to  a 
higher  power  to  bring  their  minds  into  a  condition  in  which 
the  truth  will  find  firm  lodgment  in  them,  and  work  its  work 
upon  them  ;  and  the  true  reasoner  will  stand  the  best  chance 
to  do  this.  We  may  say  that  the  burden  of  proof  lies  with 
the  enemies  of  truth ;  nevertheless,  the  preacher  cannot  ex- 
pect to  reach  men's  minds,  and  permanently  convince  them, 
unless  he  sets  truth  before  them  in  a  clear  manner. 

(4.)  To  expose  and  overcome  error.  Error  is  perverted 
or  wrongly  reasoned  truth — truth  out  of  its  right  relations. 
It  is  built  on  some  process  of  false  reasoning,  and,  having 
the  appearance  of  truth,  it  has  more  power  to  deceive.  It 
may  arise  from  a  fault  in  the  form  of  thinking,  and  thus  be 
self-deceiving — the  most  subtly  powerful  of  all  error.  This 
false  reasoning,  however,  may  be  sometimes  far  too  deep 
for  the  ordinary  mind  to  detect.  The  Christian  heart  may 
detect  it,  but  it  cannot  be  thoroughly  overthrown  until  its 
fallacy  is  discovered  and  exposed.  This  can  be  done  only 
by  the  disciplined  reasoner.  Gibbon,  Hume,  Strauss,  have 
rarely  met  their  match  as  acute  dialecticians  ;  therefore  their 
reasoning  has  continued  to  work  mischief.  Zealous  but  un- 
skilful men  have  attacked  them,  and  been  foiled,  and  the 
public  faith  has  been  weakened.  It  would  seem  to  be  proved 
that  the  fierce  discussions  upon  Hume's  fiimous  argument  on 
"miracles"  might  have  been  saved  if  some  contemporary 
theologian  had  been  able  to  point  out  in  a  clear  way,  which 
admitted  of  no  gainsaying,  the  fallacy  contained  in  Hume's 
argument  —  that  its  middle  term  refers  really  to  but  a  part, 
whereas  his  conclusion  is  made  to  refer  to  a  whole  ^  —  an 
instance  of  what  is  called  in  logic  "illicit  process.'^  In  other 
words,  Hume  falsely  makes  some  testimony,  which  is  weak 

*  Whately's  Beasoning,  Lesson  IV,,  §  4. 

19* 


222  PREACHING. 

and  fallible,  to  stand  for  all  testimony,  which  is  not  thus 
weak  and  fallible.  The  preacher  should  be  boldly  skilful 
to  detect  these  fallacies  of  false  reasoning.  Many  errors 
of  the  head  might  be  put  aside  forever  in  a  congregation, 
if  the  preacher  understood  the  nature  of  true  and  false  rea- 
soning. Admit  the  Romish  premises,  and  you  must  come 
to  the  Romish  conclusion  ;  admit  the  rationalistic  premises, 
and  you  can  land  yourself  in  the  depths  of  pantheism,  and 
even  atheism.  When  an  error  arises  in  a  community,  men 
honor  a  courageous  assault  made  upon  it  by  fair  argument, 
rather  than  an  attempt  to  put  it  down  in  a  dogmatic,  un- 
reasoning way  ;  it  will  thrive  under  this  latter  treatment. 
A  preacher  of  Christ  has,  at  some  time,  to  buckle  on  the 
armor  of  controversy,  and  meet  error  in  manful  conflict. 
He  must  sometimes  fight  it  out,  as  Paul  tells  Timothy  to 
do  in  respect  to  the  false  teachers  of  Ephesus ;  and  by  the 
clear  ^^manifestation  of  the  truth,^'  he  will  commend  himself 
and  his  cause  to  all. 

(5.)  To  enable  him  to  emjploy  the  fit  argument.  We  need 
not  say  that  all  arguments  should  not  be  used  at  all  times. 
Before  some  audiences  it  would  be  better  to  employ  the 
indirect  argument  than  an  argument  where  the  conclusion 
is  apparent.  Dr.  Emmons  was  famous  for  his  "  ratio  ohli- 
qua^^^  which  oftentimes  was  brought  to  bear  with  sudden 
and  irresistible  power.  He  is,  however,  not  to  be  followed 
too  closely  in  that,  for  that  art,  if  commonly  used,  would 
seem  to  imply  something  like  craft.  In  proving  a  certain 
proposition,  or  form  of  truth,  the  "a  priori  argument,^^  or 
the  method  of  deductive  reasoning  from  generals  to  par- 
ticulars, where  certain  generic  truths  are  taken  for  the 
premises,  and  then  we  reason  to  individuals  or  particulars 
contained  under  them,  may  be  the  most  forcible  method. 
Reasoning  upon  the  nature  of  God  admits  of  the  highest  and 
most  constant  use  of  this  kind  of  argument.  Indeed,  the 
preacher  is  called  upon  to  use  this  argument  almost  continu- 
ally, from  the  fact  that  he  preaches  to  interpret  and  enforce 


§  20.      USE   OF  EEASONING  TO   THE   PREACHER. 


223 


divine  revelation,  instead  of  being  called  upon,  as  the  scien- 
tific man  is,  to  arrive  at  new  truth  by  the  system  of  induc- 
tive reasoning. 

Sometimes  it  is  best  to  reason  to  an  announced  conclu- 
sion, where  demonstrative  truth  is  impossible.  This  tenta- 
tive process,  when  conducted  on  true  principles,  and  not 
carried  into  the  extremes  of  theoretical  reasoning,  is  often 
\  interesting  and  awakening  ;  it  leads  to  original  investigations 
and  fresh  views  of  divine  truth.  Oftentimes,  on  the  other 
hand,  without  naming  our  proposition,  it  is  the  most  effec- 
tive plan  to  reason  downward  toward  an  unannounced  con- 
clusion, arriving  at  it  as  if  led  by  the  very  force  of  truth, 
and  not  from  any  prearranged  and  controlling  proposition. 

A  strong  argument  is  made  by  reasoning  from  the  princi- 
ple of  extension;  as,  for  example,  that  of  Young,  in  his 
Christ  in  History.  He  argues  from  the  admitted  focts  of 
our  Lord's  life  on  earth,  taking  the  most  natural  and  lowest 
view  of  them  —facts  which  present  to  men  the  simple  man- 
hood of  Jesus ;  from  these  his  argument  rises  and  leads  on 
to  the  irresistible  conclusion  that  such  words,  such  works, 
such  facts,  such  a  character,  can  be  predicated  only  of  a 
divine  being,  of  one  who  in  the  constitution  of  his  nature 
was  one  with  God.  The  argument  from  contraries  is  some- 
times the  only  efficient  argument;  for  the  truth  of  some 
propositions  can  be  established  only  by  proving  their  oppo- 
sites  to  be  untrue  ;  for  of  two  opposites,  both  cannot  be 
true,  and  if  one  be  false,  the  other  must  be  true.  The 
argument  from  analogy  is  particularly  useful  to  the  preacher, 
but  is,  nevertheless,  extremely  difficult  to  handle  with  effect ; 
and  one  may  easily  overdo  it,  and  injure  his  cause.  A 
false  analogy  is  very  seductive  and  very  injurious.  Because, 
it  is  sometimes  said,  a  cultivated  garden  always  brings 
forth  good  fruits,  therefore  a  cultivated  mind  always  pro- 
duces good  fruits,  and  education  is  thus  the  universal  pan- 
acea of  all  evils  — certainly  a  false  conclusion.  Analogy  is 
often  a  strong  argument,  but  it  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  a 


224  PREACHING. 

wholly  demonstrative  argument ;  even  Bishop  Butler's  argu- 
ment is  not  claimed  to  be  conclusive.  It  may  be  as  strong 
in  its  moral  impression  as  a  demonstrative  argument,  and 
even  stronger ;  but  it  is,  after  all,  greater  in  its  negative  than 
in  its  positive  force.  Employed  in  the  more  common  meth- 
ods of  illustrative  reasoning,  the  argument  of  analogy  is  of 
exceeding  value  to  the  preacher  in  imparting  a  living  force 
to  his  preaching;  and  that  kind  of  reasoning  makes  the 
natural  world  an  organ  to  play  upon,  and  from  it  may  be 
drawn  harmonies  and  accords  the  most  unexpected,  power- 
ful, and  delightful. 

The  arguments,  too,  from  relation.,  omission,  experience, 
testimony/,  probability,  may  be  wielded  with  effect,  if  they 
are  employed  at  the  right  time  and  in  the  right  place.  What 
is  required  in  an  argument  is  simply  to  present  the  truth 
in  as  strong  and  clear  a  light  as  one  can,  so  as  to  give  all 
possible  satisfaction  to  every  mind  in  the  audience.  We 
are  required,  therefore,  to  study  the  particular  case  before 
us,  the  nature  of  the  truth  to  be  established,  the  end  to  be 
gained,  the  quality  of  the  audience,  and  to  adapt  the  reason- 
ing to  the  circumstances  of  the  theme  and  occasion,  so  that 
we  may  be  "  workmen  that  need  not  to  he  ashamed, ^^ 

(6.)  To  produce  persuasion.  We  mean  by  this  something 
over  and  above  what  has  been  said  of  developing  truth  and 
lodging  it  in  the  mind.  We  mean  effecting  a  change  in  the 
mind  and  act  of  the  hearer.  We  mean  not  merely  to  con- 
vince, not  merely  to  move,  but  to  move  to  act.  Paul  and  the 
early  preachers  did  not  leave  men  quaking  under  the  law,  but 
led  them  to  Christ :  ^^  knowing  the  terrors  of  the  law,  we  per- 
suade 7nen.*'  This  was  old  Latimer's  way  of  preaching.  He 
was  earnest,  as  he  said  in  his  own  words,  "  in  casting  down 
the  people  with  the  law,  and  with  the  threatenings  of  God 
for  sin ;  not  forgetting  to  ridge  them  up  again  with  the 
gospel  and  the  promises  of  God's  favor."  ^ 

Persuasion,  according  to  Whately,  depends  on  the  con- 

'  Graham  on  Preaching  and  Popular  Education,  p.  54. 


§  20.       USE    OF    REASONING    TO   THE    PREACHER.      225 

viction  of  the  understanding,  the  influencing  of  the   will, 
and  the  moving  of  the  feelings.      Now,  it  is  evident  that 
no  exhortation,  nor  brilliant  writing,  can  do  this,  without, 
first  of  all,  some  clear  exhibition  of  truth,  which  appeals  to 
the  reason,  presents  a  motive  to  the  will,  and  acts  as  an  im- 
pulse to  the  feelings.     Feeling  does  not  move  at  the  mere 
voice  of  command.     It  is  jealous  of  authority  —  it  refuses 
to  be    tampered    with.       The    road  to  it   is    indirect,  and 
often  exceedingly  circuitous.     The  persuasion  which   final- 
ly  seizes  upon  and  moves  the  whole    being  is  no   imme- 
diate result.      When  'the  Athenians  started  up  and  cried, 
"  To  arms  !  "  it  was  after  one  of  Demosthenes'  most  exhaus- 
tive and  labored  efibrts  of  reasoning.     The  depths  of  the 
nature  must  be  slowly  aroused  and  heated,  before  the  whole 
soul  —  so  to  speak  —  flows  forth  under  persuasion.     The 
understanding  must  hand  its  verdict  to  the  will,  and  the  will 
must  communicate  its  impulse  to  the  afiectious,   and  then 
the  whole  awakened  mind  yields  itself  freely  to  the  truth, 
and  says,  "I  believe  and  I  will  do."     As  has  been  said  in 
regard  to  divine  truth,  the  essential  and  peculiar,  nature  of 
divine  truth  should  not  be  lost  sight  of — that  it  is  in  itself 
pure  and  simple,  the  converting  instrumentality ;  or  rather 
that  it  is   accompanied  by  the  special  jjower  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.     We  can  add  nothing  to  the  truth.     "  The  laiv  of  the 
Lord  is  perfect,  converting  the  soul"     All  is  dry  light  with- 
out God's  living  energy.     That  inner  persuasion  of  truth 
which  imparts  new  life  to  the  nature,  springs  from  above. 

We  add  some  cautions  to  the  preacher  in  the  use  of  rea- 
soning, (a.)  He  should  not  rely  luholly  upon  it  for  success. 
We  have  endeavored  carefully  to  guard  against  this.  The 
nature  of  the  corrupted  human  heart  and  the  nature  of 
divine  truth  —  in  a  word,  the  presence  of  sin  and  the  need 
of  a  higher  power  —  forbid  this.  The  preacher  of  Christ  is 
the  agent  of  producing  not  only  persuasion,  but  life.  He 
is  not  only,  by  means  of  the  truth,  to  bring  men  into  a  new 


226  '  PREACHING. 

opinion,  but  into  a  new  disposition.  He  must  have  God's 
help  for  this.  Yet  the  truth  is  the  instrument  of  this  great 
work.  An  eminent  American  preacher  has  said  that  "  min- 
isters should  not  always  be  talking  about  the  truth  —  the 
truth.  They  should  preach  and  think  more  of  the  life." 
We  agree  with  the  sentiment  that  was  probably  meant  to  be 
conveyed  by  that  remark,  yet  there  is  a  latent  fallacy  in  it ; 
for  divine  truth  differs  from  common  truth  inasmuch  as  it  is 
itself  potential  with  life:  '^ My  words,  they  are  spirit  and 
they  are  life."  They  are  not  the  mere  food  of  the  intellect, 
they  nourish  the  soul  into  everlasting  life.  We  know  of 
no  way  of  producing  new  spiritual  life,  excepting  through 
the  bringing  home  of  divine  truth  to  men's  minds  and 
hearts,  and,  through  their  honest  reception  of  it,  into  the 
currents  of  life.  This  further  inward  assimilating  and 
life-giving  process  of  the  truth  is  hidden  and  mysterious 
to  us ;  3'es,  more  so  than  the  processes  of  our  natural  life  ; 
but  our  dut}^  as  preachers  is  plain :  we  should  present  and 
enforce  the  truth  in  the  clearest,  most  powerful  and  most 
persuasive  manner  that  we  are  clpable  of.  "  Ye  shall  know 
the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free." 

That  is  invariably  the  divine  method ;  and  it  is  beauti- 
fully consonant  to  the  laws  of  the  mind.  We  come  to  the 
conclusion,  that  reasoning,  while  it  has  a  real  value  to  the 
preacher,  is  insufficient  for  the  highest  practical  results  : 
these  depend  upon  other  factors.  God,  and  the  things  of 
God,  in  their  deepest  and  truest  meanings,  do  not  lie  in 
the  domain  of  reasoning;  they  are  to  be  reached,  if  at  all, 
through  faith,  feeling,  obedience,  love  —  often  by  not  seek- 
ing to  prove  or  define  them.  The  preacher  should,  there- 
fore, beware  of  dogmatizing  upon  themes  of  a  higher  sphere, 
and  should  keep  himself  to  the  simple  language  of  faith  ;  he 
should  choose  to  be  vague,  rather  than  to  attempt  to  confine 
infinite  things  in  logical  formulas.  One  may,  indeed,  sin  as 
much  through  argumentative  preaching,  as  through  sensation- 
al preaching.   The  preacher  should  speak  on  heavenly  themes 


§  20.   USE  or  REASONING  TO  THE  PREACHER.    227 

as  a  child,  rather  than  as  a  geometrician.  His  reasoning, 
should  it  ever  assume  an  entirely  abstract  form,  separates 
himself  and  his  theme  from  the  living  sympathies  of  his 
hearers.  Preaching  must  reach  the  people,  or  it  is  vain, 
dead,  worse  than  dead.  (6.)  He  should  not  he  a  mei'e  rea- 
soner.  Reasoning  is  by  no  means  all  that  a  sermon  needs. 
It  should  have  literary  attractiveness,  spiritual  insight,  and 
above  all',  heart,  love,  life,  faith,  unction.  Some  kinds  of 
sermons  do  not  even  admit  of  much  close  reasoning.  And 
reasoning  in  sermons  should  not  end  in  demonstration,  but 
should  be  aimed  at  the  conscience,  will,  and  heartv  Dr. 
Wayland,  for  example,  had  a  logical  mind,  and  used  the 
logical  method  in  preaching ;  but  his  hearers  thought  little 
of  the  logic,  because  his  sermons  were  practical,  and  were 
pointed  directly  to  the  heart  and  life.  It  is  not  always  prac- 
ticable, nor  always  best,  to  make  the  direct  appeal ;  but  no 
sermon  should  be  left  to  stand  merely  as  an  argument,  ex- 
citing respect  or  applause,  and  carrying  conviction  to  the 
head ;  but  the  hearers  should  perceive  that  the  preacher 
cares  nothing  about  the  argument,  as  an  argument,  and  that 
he  is  preaching  to  bring  them  to  God  and  eternal  life.  The 
preacher  should  not  leave  himself,  or  the  merit  of  his  work, 
in  the  mind  of  the  hearer,  but  Christ  and  his  work,  Christ 
and  his  love.  His  hearers  will  get  accustomed  to  the  most  ter- 
rifying doctrines,  if  they  see  that  the  preacher,  in  his  treat- 
ment of  them,  means  nothing  more  than  the  display  of  his 
dialectic  skill  and  partisan  orthodoxy.  This  kind  of  preach- 
ing has  been  sometimes  carried  so  far,  that  it  has  emptied 
churches  and  driven  away  the  Spirit  of  God.  Paul  warned 
Timothy  against  this  very  thing,  and  bade  him  not  dwell  upon 
subjects  "  which  minister  questions,  rather  than  godly  edify- 
ing, which  is  in  faith;''  and  to  preach,  "not  himself,  but 
Christ  Jesus  the  Lord."  The  preacher  and  his  sermon  are  of 
comparatively  little  importance.  They  have  accomplished 
their  task,  if,  by  God's  grace,  they  bring  men  to  the  feet  of 
Jesus.    Has  a  sermon  an  amazingly  rending  power?    Like  a 


228  PREACniNG. 

shell  that  has  done  its  work,  the  most  powerful  sermon,  the 
most  faithful  argument,  after  it  has  sped  to  its  mark,  is  but 
worthless  iron. 

We  would  desire,  in  closing  this  theme,  to  repeat  the 
warning  against  too  high  expectations  concerning  the  pro- 
ductive power  of  the  logical  method  in  the  investigation  of 
divine  truth.  Insight  and  simple  consciousness,  the  exer- 
cise of  the  higher  reason,  above  all,  ftiith  and  obedience, 
are  the  chief  productive  elements  in  the  discovery  and  in- 
culcation of  truth.  In  religious  things,  the  intuitions  of  the 
heart  are  better  than  the  conclusions  of  the  intellect.  No 
man  is  converted  by  reasoning,  but  he  is  by  love  —  the  love 
of  God  as  manifested  in  Christ. 

§  21.     The  Study  of  Language. 

Whatever  may  be  our  theory  in  regard  to  the  origin  of 
language,  whether  it  be  natural  or  divine,  it  is  assuredly 
the  divinely  ordained  and  inevitable  expression  of  that  spirit 
in  man  which  allies  him  to  God.  Man  was  originall}^  created 
with  the  capacity  and  instinct  of  language;  i.  e.,  with  the 
organs  of  speech  and  the  ability  to  use  these  organs  to  ex- 
press his  thoughts  ;  and  the  effort  to  do  this,  or  the  process 
of  doing  it,  was  the  origin  of  language.  What  the  actual  pro- 
cess of  forming  language  was,  must  remain  an  unexplained 
problem  ;  but  the  two  elements  in  the  production  of  language 
were  undoubtedly  the  power  of  thought  and  the  power  of  ex- 
pression. Why  certain  sounds  were  applied  to  certain  things, 
or  objects,  or  ideas,  we  know  not ;  but  we  know  that  there 
must  have  been,  before  sound,  the  power  of  perception,  obser- 
vation, classification  ;  and  thus  thought  was,  humanly  speak- 
ing, the  originating  cause  of  language.  Language  is  thought 
embodied  in  speech.  Words  are  the  signs  and  instruments  of 
thought.  And  what  is  thought  but  the  operation  or  action 
of  the  mind  itself,  in  its  endeavor  to  define  and  express  its 
own   conceptions?     Thus  language,   as  the  expression  of 


§  21.       THE    STUDY   OF   LANGUAGE.  229 

thought,  which  is  the  essential  result  and  accompaniment 
of  mind,  is  really  the  true  manifestation  of  the  human 
mind.  It  is  the  great  distinction  of  humanity,  as  being  the 
way  in  which  the  mind,  or  the  spirit,  in  man,  makes  itself 
known.  As  the  word  without  the  spirit  is  dead,  so,  per- 
haps, it  may  be  said  that  the  spirit  without  the  word  is  dead 
also.  Let  us  come  at  the  root  of  language,  and  we  find  that 
it  is  spiritual;  and  this  truth  increases  inexpressibly  its 
value  and  power  to  us  as  preachers.  It  is  true  that  lan- 
guage is  not  a  perfect  erpression  of  the  spirit  —  how  could 
it  be  ?  "  For  any  definition  we  can  frame  for  the  eye  as  the 
organ  of  sight,  the  statement  that '  God  sees,'  is  untrue,  and 
we  are  only  enabled  to  decide  this  by  the  grasp  we  possess 
of  the  idea  enveloped  in  the  words  '  He  that  made  the  eye 
shall  he  not  see?'  Thus  language,  with  all  its  power  of  ab- 
straction, is  but  concrete  when  compared  with  thought;  and 
it  is,  perhaps,  the  privilege  of  advancing  holiness,  to  be  able 
to  divest  its  thoughts  more  and  more  of  the  accretions,  which 
are  not  wholly  separable  from  them  when  clothed  in  human 
language."  ^  Although  language  is  thus,  after  all,  an  imper- 
fect exhibition  of  the  soul,  or  thought  of  the  soul,  yet  it  is 
the  most  perfect  of  all  modes  of  spiritual  expression.  It 
is  more  perfect  than  music,  painting,  or  any  of  the  expres- 
sive arts.  These  are,  in  some  sort,  language,  and  very  ex- 
pressive language ;  but  the  language  which  is  contained  in 
words  fits  the  soul  more  closely,  and  is  more  subtile  and 
vital  than  they.  The  "  winged  words  "  fly  forth  as  on  the 
breath  of  the  soul.  Other  modes  of  expression  are  more 
material,  indefinite,  and  obscure.  Speech  is  thus,  more  than 
anything  else,  the  soul  made  visible.  Ben  Jonson  says,  "Lan- 
guage must  show  a  man;  speak,  that  I  may  see  thee!  It 
springs  out  of  the  most  retired  and  inmost  parts  of  us,  and  is 
the  image  of  the  parent  of  it,  the  mind.  No  glass  renders 
a  man's  form  and  likeness  so  true  as  his  speech."     Walter 

*  Christian  Remembrancer,  April,  1860,  p.  310. 

20 


230  PREACHING. 

Savage  Landor  says,  "Language  is  a  part  of  a  man's  char- 
acter." In  fact,  no  two  persons  speak  the  same  language, 
nor  give  precisely  the  same  meaning  to  words.  Every 
man's  speech  is,  to  a  certain  degree,  peculiar  and  individual, 
beins:  the  imasre  of  his  own  soul,  and  of  no  one's  else.  He 
may  try,  perhaps,  to  hide  his  spirit  iu  his  language,  but 
it  will,  if  he  speaks  much,  show  itself.  If  language  has 
this  spiritual  source  and  power,  it  deserves  the  greatest 
attention,  for  subtile  and  profound  forces  are  wrapped  up  in 
it,  and  deep  influences  also,  for  evil  or  for  good.  We  may 
see  at  a  glance  that  if  there  is  this  profound  spiritual  source 
of  language,  the  spring  should  be  kept  pure  for  the  sake 
of  the  language,  which  is  its  true  result  and  manifestation. 
Professor  Whitney,  in  opposition  to  Max  Miiller  and  some 
of  the  German  writers,  regards  language  as  a  moral  in- 
stead of  a  physical  science ;  and  he  looks  upon  it  as  con- 
nected more  with  the  spiritual  will  than  with  the  physical 
life.  Without  doubt,  because  it  is  thus  so  deeply  associated 
with  moral  responsibility,  and  so  nearly  allied  to  the  soul 
itself,  the  Saviour  said,  ^'  For  by  thy  ivords  thou  ahalt  be  jus- 
tified, and  by  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  condemned^'  Also 
the  apostle  James  said,  ^'If  any  ma7i  offend  not  in  word,  the 
same  is  a  perfect  man." 

We  would,  therefore,  lay  down  the  simple  proposition, 
that  for  every  conceivable  reason,  whether  spiritual  or  prac- 
tical, the  study  of  language  is  essential  to  the  preacher,  — 

(1.)  That  language  may  become  the  perfect  instalment  of 
thought.  If  language  is  thus  vitally  related  to  spirit,  and, 
therefore,  to  thought,  it  becomes  the  preacher — whose  duty 
is,  to  communicate  the  highest  and  most  spiritual  thought  to 
others  —  to  study  the  powers  and  adaptations  of  language. 
These  are  hidden  and  evasive.  There  is  a  law  of  life  in 
language,  ^vhich  is  exeedingly  subtile,  and  which  cannot  be 
grasped  by  the  unstudious  or  mechanical  mind.  This  is,  the 
acquisition  of  a  profoundly  disciplined  perception.  While 
the  philological  uses  of  a  preacher's  special  study  of  Ian- 


§  21.      THE   STUDY   OF   LANGUAGE.  231 

guage,  for  the  independent  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures, 
and  for  all  scholarly  purposes,  are  apparent,  it  is  not  of  this 
aspect  of  language  that  we  would  now  particularly  speak. 
The  preacher  should  study  language,  — language  itself,  not 
languages,  —  in  •  order  that  it  may  become  this  spiritual 
manifestation  or  power;  or,  in  other  words,  that  it  may 
become  a  facile  and  perfect  instrument  of  thought.  Such 
is  the  divine  use  of  language.  The  word  of  God  is  the 
perfect  instrument  of  the  Spirit  of  God  —  ^Hhe  sword  of  the 
Spirit,  which  is  the  word  of  God."  And  this  higher  truth 
respecting  the  word,  or  speech  of  God,  extends  even  to  him 
who  is  the  preacher  of  that  word  ;  for  he  who  preaches  the 
word  of  God  purely,  wields  ''the  sivord  of  the  Spirit."  There 
is  a  spiritual  influence,  a  pure  power,  that  moves  the  soul  and 
accompanies  the  language  which  springs  from  a  soul  striving 
to  express  divine  truth  in  a  way  that  shall  honor  it  and  wor- 
thily present  it.  And  if  the  human  preacher,  proclaiming 
the  truth  purely,  is  thus  permitted  to  wield  the  sword  of 
the  Spirit,  how  much  more  should  his  language  become  the 
sword  of  his  own  spirit !  The  word  should  be  born  with  the 
thought.  Language  should  be  the  perfect  instrument  of  the 
preacher's  own  mind,  doing  with  equal  facility  the  mightiest 
and  most  delicate  acts  of  his  will.  Even  as  his  thought  is, 
even  as  his  inmost  soul  is,  so  should  his  language  be.  The 
spiritual  force  of  the  man  should  go  forth  without  apparent 
effort,  or  incongruity  of  his  words.  Men  should  not  think 
of  his  language,  how  beautiful  or  how  strong  it  is,  but  should 
see  himself  in  his  language,  should  see  his  spirit.  To  desig- 
nate a  living  writer  and  preacher,  the  language  of  Dr.  Bush- 
nell  is,  we  think,  in  a  marked  degree,  the  manifestation  of 
his  thought ;  he  seems  to  have  brought  his  language  to 
a  wonderful  accord  with  his  inward  self.  His  style  might 
not  be  considered  perfect,  but  it  expresses  himself,  and  it 
expresses  what  he  wills.  His  mind  wields  speech  as  a 
strong,  swift  gymnast  moves  his  limbs.  Thought  and  word 
are  one  and  indivisible  —  one  act.    He  has  made  language 


232  PREACHING. 

a  study.  He  has  appreciated  its  power,  and  sought  for 
its  living  law.  Everything  he  says,  therefore,  has  a  mean- 
ing, and  is  instinct  with  life.  His  use  of  words  is  at  the 
same  time  exact  and  carelessly  copious.  It  is  not  confined 
to  what  is  called  purity  of  style,  but  it  has  those  higher 
qualities  of  power  which  require  a  wider  and  bolder  sway 
over  the  realm  of  language.  When  he  needs  a  strong  word 
or  phrase  for  his  purpose,  he  digs  it  up  like  a  rock  out  of 
the  earth,  and  hurls  it  with  all  its  ponderous  weight.  When, 
however,  he  wishes  to  express  an  abstract  and  philosophical 
idea,  instead  of  simplifying  it,  and  bringing  it  down  to  the 
level  of  the  unphilosophical  mind,  he  avails  himself  freely 
of  learning  and  of  accurate  scientific  terminology,  knowing 
that  there  is  an  instinct  in  the  appreciation  of  language 
even  among  common  men,  which  is  better  than  education. 
In  a  word,  he  lays  hold  of  anything  in  the  kingdom  of  lan- 
guage which  serves  his  thought,  which  manifests  most  per- 
fectly the  force  and  sagacity  of  his  spirit.  Another  instance 
among  modern  preachers  of  this  plastic  and  vital  use  of  lan- 
guage, though  not  with  the  peculiar  power  of  Dr.  Bushnell 
in  this  one  particular,  is  F.  W.  Robertson.  It  was  said  of 
a  more  ancient  preacher  still,  —  Apollos,  — that  he  was  "an 
eloquent  man,"  referring,  doubtless,  to  this  power  of  expres- 
sion in  language.  The  preacher's  use  of  language  should 
have  all  the  naturalness  of  a  common  man's  speech,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  all  the  scholar's  command  of  the  higher  and 
more  hidden  resources  of  language ;  its  exquisite  adapta- 
tions to  human  thought. 

(2.)  That  he  may  have  a  mastery  of  words.  The  preach- 
er's use  of  language,  we  have  said,  should  have  all  the  natu- 
ralness of  a  common  man's  speech,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
all  the  scholar's  command  of  the  wide  resources  of  lanmiao^e. 
"A  well-educated  person  in  England  seldom  uses  more  than 
about  three  thousand  or  four  thousand  words  in  actual  con- 
versation. Accurate  thinkers  and  close  reasoners,  who  avoid 
vague  and  general  expressions,  and  wait  till  they  find  the 


§  21.       THE   STUDY    OF   LANGUAGE.  233 

word  that  exactly  fits  their  meaning,  employ  a  larger  stock  ; 
and  eloquent  speakers  may  rise  to  a  command  of  ten  thou- 
sand. Shakspeare,  who  displayed  a  greater  variety  of  ex- 
pression than  probably  any  other  writer  in  any  language, 
produced  all  his  plays  with  about  fifteen  thousand  words. 
Milton's  prose  works  are  built  up  with  eight  thousand  ;  and 
the  Old  Testament  says  all  that  it  has  to  say  with  five  thou- 
sand six  hundred  and  forty-two  words."  ^  How  shall  the 
preacher  obtain  this  sway  over  the  wide  field  of  language 
—  how  shall  he  acquire  this  copious  vocabulary — unless 
he  makes  language  a  special  study  —  language  itself — the 
powers,  resources,  and  wealth  of  words?  This  is  a  broad 
realm ;  one  must  conquer  it,  to  use  its  revenues.  He  may 
have  thought  and  learning,  he  may  have  a  vivid  conception 
of  truth ;  but  unless  he  can  express  his  thoughts,  unless  he 
can  wield  this  instrument  of  the  soul  with  freedom,  he  is  a 
dumb  prophet,  he  is  an  inarticulate  soul,  the  word  of  God 
languishes  imprisoned  within  him.  One  may  deal  too  exclu- 
sively with  the  substance,  and  neglect  too  much  the  form, 
of  truth,  or  the  harmonious  development  of  the  substance 
and  the  form.  The  language,  therefore,  of  some  preachers, 
when  they  begin  to  attempt  to  communicate  thought  to  other 
minds,  is  stifi",  mechanical,  unyielding.  They  are  not  mas- 
ters of  expression..  The  living  power  of  words  is  not  theirs. 
Their  ideas  freeze  while  they  speak.  The  inward  conception 
finds  a  totally  inadequate  medium  of  representation.  There 
is  no  vital  union  between  the  thought  and  the  word ;  so  that 
the  style  has  either  the  appearance  of  not  being  one's  own, 
or  of  being  that  of  an  uncultivated  mind ;  which  impres- 
sion, in  either  case,  may  be  entirely  false.  The  young 
preacher  should  be  warned  of  his  deficiency  in  time,  and  he 
should  set  himself  about  correcting  or  supplying  this  great 
want  in  his  education  ;  and  unless  he  does  this,  he  can  hardly 
become  a  iiatui^al  or  original  speaker ;  for  if  a  man  wishes 

'  Mailer's  Science  of  Language,  p.  266. 

20* 


234  PREACHING. 

to  have  freshness  and  originality  of  style,  he  must  mas- 
ter language,  he  must  make  words  subservient  to  his 
will ;  else  he  will  express  them  in  a  formal  style,  which  he 
has  caught  from  others,  he  knows  not  how.  He  cannot 
be  original  unless  he  has  a  style  of  his  own,  as  well  as 
thoughts  of  his  own.  A  man's  style  of  writing  or  speak- 
ing may  not  be  a  good  one,  though  it  be  his  own  ;  but  it 
certainly  is  not  a  good  one  unless  it  is  his  own,  unless  he 
has  broken  loose  from  the  leading-strings  of  imitation,  and 
has  acquired  a  genuine,  unconscious  style  of  his  own.  He 
who  has  a  style  that  is  expressive  of  his  own  mind  has  a 
style  which  his  own  mind  will  look  and  work  freely  in,  and 
he  does  not  light  in  Saul's  armor. 

(3.)  That  he  mci]/,  above  all,  be  a  master  of  his  mother 
tongue.  How  can  one  become  possessor  of  a  natural,  copi- 
ous, and  flexible  style,,  which  is  the  genuine  investiture 
of  his  thought,  until  he  thoroughly  understands  the  genius 
and  structure  of  the  language  in  which  he  thinks  ?  As  it 
is  now  satisfactorily  proved  that  there  can  be  no  mixed 
language,  though  one  language  may  contribute  to  another, 
how  important  that  one  should  understand  his  own  !  Yet 
it  is  a  singular  fact  that  most  educated  men  study,  all  their 
lives,  the  dead  languages,  and  neglect  that  language  which 
is  the  only  living  one  to  them,  and  which  must  be  learned 
in  its  own  grammar,  history,  and  literature.  "The  gen- 
eral and  obvious  distinction  between  the  grammar  of  the 
English  and  the  Continental  tongues  is,  that  whereas  in 
the  latter  the  relations  of  words  are  determined  by  their 
form,  or  by  a  traditional  structure  of  period  handed  down 
from  a  more  strictly  inflectional  phase  of  those  languages, 
in  English,  on  the  other  hand,  those  relations  do  not  indi- 
cate, but  are  deduced  from,  the  logical  categories  of  the 
words  which  compose  the  period,  and  hence  they  must  be 
demonstrated  by  a  very  diflTerent  process  from  that  which 
is  appropriate  for  syntaxes  depending  on  other  principles. 
A  truly  philosophical   system   of   English  syntax  cannot. 


§  21.      THE    STUDY   OF   LANGUAGE.  235 

then,  be  built  up  by  means  of  the  Latin  scaftblding  which 
has  served  for  the  construction  of  all  the  Continental  theo- 
ries of  grammar,  and  with  which  alone  the  literary  public 
is  familiar,  but  must  be  conceived  and  executed  on  a  wholly 
new  and  original  plan."  ^ 

Some  of  the  purest  and  most  idiomatic  English  writers 
in  point  of  style  have  been  men  of  one  speech.  Shakspeare's 
"  small  Latin  and  less  Greek  "  is  a  familiar  fact ;  and  in  the 
same  category  may  be  reckoned  Izaak  Walton,  Dean  Swift 
(who  neglected  his  regular  academic  studies,  and  applied 
himself  mostly  to  the  reading  of  poetry),  John  Bunyan, 
Goldsmith,  to  a  certain  extent,  and  De  Foe,  and,  in  modern 
times,  Dr.  Franklin,  Cobbett,  Erskine,  Daniel  Webster, 
Hugh  Miller.  These  men,  with  one  or  two  exceptions, 
knew  little  of  the  classics,  or  of  any  language  other  than 
their  own ;  and  yet  with  what  power  they  used  their  own  ! 
What  vigorous  English  some  of  our  American  editors  em- 
ploy, who  have  had  but  a  brief  common  school  education ! 
The  strength  that  these  men  have,  as  writers  and  speakers, 
came  purely  from  the  English  tongue ;  and  this  shows  that 
there  is  an  original  power  in  our  language  which  does  not 
depend  upon  foreign  learning. 

In  order  to  acquire  this  thorough  mastery  of  the  English 
language,  two  sources  of  study  are  particularly  valuable, 
viz.,  English  literature  and  English  philology. 

(a.)  English  literature.  Nothing  helps  to  make  us  facile 
and  ready  writers  more  than  a  rich  course  of  reading  in 
English  literature.  In  this  way  we  gain  a  coj)ious  style, 
and  a  quick  perception  of  the  marvellous  powers  of  words. 
Preachers  are  often  exceedingly  deficient  in  this  kind  of 
literary  culture,  and  that  is  one  of  the  causes  of  their  stiff, 
barren  style.  Their  English  reading  has  been  confined  ex- 
clusively to  professional  authors,  to  theological  works  whose 
style,  perhaps,  is  in  the  highest  degree  rigid,  and  devoid 

'  Marsh's  English  Language  and  its  early  Literature,  Lect.  I.,  p.  22. 


236  PREACHING. 

of  vital  beauty.  They  do  not  enter  the  broad  fields  of 
English  poetry,  drama,  history,  humor,  and  fiction.  A 
knowledge  of  English  literature  implies  a  universal  range 
of  authors,  and  excludes  anything  strictly  technical  or  pro- 
fessional. It  has  relations  to  humanity  generally,  rather 
than  to  any  particular  department  of  it.  And  what  language 
may  compare  with  the  English  in  this  vital  element,  in  this 
multiform  character,  in  this  wide  scope  of  subjects  that 
appeal  to  our  common  nature?  It  is  not  merely  for  the 
acquisition  of  new  knowledge,  but  of  mental  self-culture, 
of  spiritual  enriching  and  invigoration,  that  ministers  should 
make  themselves  widely  acquainted  with  the  treasures  of 
English  literature.  "Mere  philological  or  etymological 
learning  cannot  make  up  for  this  want  of  general  literary 
cultivation  and  reading.  Dictionary  definitions,  considered 
as  a  means  of  philological  instruction,  are  as  inferior  to 
miscellaneous  reading  as  a  hortus  siccus  to  a  botanic  gar- 
den. Words  exert  their  living  powers,  and  give  utterance 
to  sentiment  and  meaning,  only  in  the  organic  combina- 
tions for  which  nature  has  adapted  them,  and  not  in  the 
alphabetic  single-file  in  which  lexicographers  post  and  drill 
them."'  De  Quincey  says,  "There  is,  first,  the  litera- 
ture of  hnowledge,  and,  secondly,  the  literature  of  power. 
The  function  of  the  first  is  to  teach ;  the  function  of  the 
second  is  to  move."  Apply  this  remark  to  English  liter- 
ature, and  what  names  of  living  power  start  up  !  They 
show  us  that  if  we  are  to  go  to  Greek  and  Latin,  German 
and  French,  for  our  learning,  we  need  not  step  out  of  the 
charmed  circle  of  English  literature  for  works  that  commu- 
nicate power,  that  reach  the  springs  of  motive  and  action, 
that  educate  character ;  for  there  is  a  spiritual  depth  and 
penetration  of  the  heart  in  English  literature  that  is  not 
to  be  found  elsewhere.  In  Carlyle's  words,  "It  is  planted 
in  man's  heart." 

We  should  endeavor  to  read  English  literature  upon  some 

'  Marsh's  Eng.  Lang,  and  Early  Lit.,  p.  442. 


§   21.      THE    STUDY   OF   LANGUAGE.  237 

jplan;  we  should  divide  it  into  its  great  epochs,  make  our- 
selves acquainted  with  the  representative  authors  of  each 
epoch,  and  study  the  growth  and  changes  of  the  language 
from  its  origin  to  the  present  time. 

But  in  order  to  obtain  a  thorough  knowleds'e  and  real 
mastery  of  the  English  language,  it  is  necessary  to  give 
some  serious  attention  (b.)  to  English  philology.  This  is 
the  study  of  the  structural  character  of  the  language,  its  his- 
torical changes,  and  its  practical  analysis.  To  do  this  one 
must  go  to  the  very  roots  of  the  language,  to  the  Anglo- 
Saxon^  and  observe  the  influence  of  the  changes  of  form 
upon  thought,  and  the  introduction  of  new  foreign  elements 
that  were  grafted  upon  the  old  Germanic  stock. 

There  are  three  great  sources  or  treasuries  of  the  English 
language  in  a  philological  as  well  as  a  literary  point  of  view  ; 
and  especially  of  its  idiomatic  Anglo-Saxon  element,  which 
every  one  who  wishes  to  have  a  pure  and  vigorous  English 
style  should  endeavor  to  make  himself  familiar  with  —  the 
works  of  Chaucer,  of  Shaksjjeare,  and  of  the  English  Bible. 
We  mention  them  together  chiefly  in  respect  to  their  lan- 
guage. 

1.  Chaucer.  The  study  of  Chaucer  forms,  perhaps,  our 
best  introduction  to  the  study  of  the  Saxon  element  in  our 
language ;  for,  although  great  changes  had  already  taken 
place  in  his  day,  yet  Chaucer  is  in  one  sense  the  creator  of 
the  English  tongue  ;  he  first  moulded  it  into  the  forms  of  lit- 
erature. Whatever  remained  of  the  Saxon  after  the  Norman- 
French  had  been  ingrafted  upon  it,  and  in  some  respects 
had  fatally  supplanted  or  outgrown  it,  he  used  with  free- 
dom and  vigor.  It  forms  still  the  staple  of  his  language, 
and  as  his  genius  fixed  the  language  in  its  forms  of  gram- 
mar and  literature,  the  Saxon  element  did  not,  after  him, 
yield  to  any  extraneous  influences.  We  may,  indeed,  set  it 
down  as  an  axiom  capable  of  the  fullest  proof,  that  Chau- 
cer's grammatical  use  of  the  language  did  not  materially 
differ  from  its  present  use.     Most   of  the  essential  gram- 


238  PREACHING. 

matical  changes  from  the  ancient  Saxon  had  already  taken 
place ;  although  Dr.  Johnson  pronounced  it  impossible  to 
ascertain  precisely  when  our  speech  ceased  to  be  Saxon, 
and  when  it  began  to  be  genuine  English.  But  the  lan- 
guage of  Chaucer  is  substantially  our  language :  and  the 
true  conservative  influence,  or  the  radically  assimilating  and 
unifying  principle,  in  our  tongue,  now,  as  it  was  in  his  day, 
is  its  Saxon  element :  that  is  the  substratum  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  disintegrate,  and  which  has  never  given  way  to 
the  influences  of  conquest ;  it  is  therefore  well  worth  our 
study.  "  Philosophy  and  science,  and  the  arts  of  high  civili- 
zation, find  their  utterance  in  the  Latin  words,  or,  if  not  in 
the  Latin,  in  the  Greek.  One  part  of  the  language  is  not  to 
be  cultivated  at  the  expense  of  the  other ;  the  Saxon  at  the 
cost  of  the  Latin,  as  little  as  the  Latin  at  the  cost  of  the 
Saxon."  ^  But  when  a  Latin  and  a  Saxon  word  ofier  them- 
selves for  choice.  Trench  Avould  have  us  take  the  Saxon. 
"  But  when  we  come  to  the  words  which  indicate  differ- 
ent states,  emotions,  passions,  mental  processes, — all,  in 
short,  that  expresses  the  moral  or  intellectual  man,  —  the 
Anglo-Saxon  vocabulary  is  eminently  affluent."  ^  De  Quin- 
cey  says,  "  Pathos^  in  situations  w^iich  are  homel}'-,  or  at 
all  connected  with  domestic  affections,  naturally  moves  in 
Saxon  words.  And  why?  Because  the  Saxon  is  the  abo- 
riginal element  —  the  basis,  not  the  superstructure;  con- 
sequently it  comprehends  all  the  ideas  which  are  natural  to 
the  heart  of  man,  and  to  the  elementary  situations  of  life." 
Whatever,  then,  we,  as  preachers,  may  draw  from  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  element  of  the  language,  we  thereby  gain  in  the 
vocabulary  of  the  heart.  One  cannot  move  men  to  tears  in 
the  Johnsonian  style ;  and  the  preacher  needs  to  learn  this 
simple  language  of  feeling. 

2.  Shakspeare.     We  cannot  enter  into  the  wide  subject 
of  the  uses  of  the  study  of  "  the  myriad-minded  bard  "  to 


'  Trench's  English,  Past  and  Present,  p. 
*  Marsh's  Eng.  Lang,  and  Lit.,  p.  94. 


34. 


§  21.      THE    STUDY   OF  LANGUAGE.  239 

the  preacher,  as  an  aid  in  the  knowledge  of  human  nature, 
and  as  a  guide  to  the  depths  of  our  moral  being.  Dr.  Em- 
mons, the  incarnation  of  the  logical  intellect,  read  Shak- 
speare  as  a  help  in  his  preaching,  and  in  the  study  of  the 
Human  heart.  The  moral  element  lies  at  the  basis  of  Shak- 
speare's  greatness  ;  and  it  is  this  ethical  and  heart-searching 
quality,  at  the  same  time  penetrating  and  genial,  wonder- 
fully discerning,  yet  healing  and  loving  all,  that  makes 
him  the  poet  of  universal  humanity.  Shakspeare  paints 
man  and  develops  character,  not  as  other  artists,  by  work- 
ing upon  philosophical  principles,  so  that  this  person  or 
that  person  is  the  embodiment  of  a  character;  but  he 
views  man,  as  a  whole,  with  blendings  of  good  and  evil, 
wisdom  and  folly,  strength  and  weakness;  swayed  now  by 
this  motive  and  now  by  that ;  capable  of  vast  effort,  but 
perishing  before  the  moth  ;  a  creature  of  heaven  and  earth  ; 
a  being  of  impulses,  sympathies,  attractions,  as  well  as  of 
rational  judgments,  and  as  diversified  and  unaccountable  as 
the  universe  he  lives  in  ;  not  exhausting  any  character,  but 
letting  him  act  fragmentarily,  as  he  does  in  actual  life,  and 
as  he  does  in  the  Bible,  which  book  Shakspeare  studied,  and 
which  is  the  only  perfect  transcript  of  man,  because  man's 
sjjirit  is  a  great  deep,  and  is  supernatural  and  immortal. 
Ulrici,  the  German  critic  of  Shakspeare,  says  that  it  is 
wonderful  that  a  man  who  possessed  such  depths  of  passion 
and  knowledge  of  sin,  could  have  so  controlled  his  life  as 
to  have  been  always,  as  he  seems  to  have  been,  at  least  after 
his  youthful  period,  respected  and  beloved.  He  says  that 
his  spirit,  and  his  spiritual  idea  of  God  and  man,  was  de- 
cidedly Protestant,  contrary  to  the  narrower  judgment  of 
Carlyle.  Goethe  says,  "  You  would  think,  while  reading  his 
plays,  that  you  stood  before  the  enclosed  awful  books  of 
fate,  while  the  whirlwind  of  most  impassioned  life  was 
howling  through  the  leaves,  and  tossing  them  fiercely  to 
and  fro." 

But  the  study  of  Shakspeare  in  his  use  of  language^  of 


240  PREACHING. 

the  English  tongue,  in  what  has  been  called  "his  matchless 
use  of  words,"  is  what  we  would  now  specially  notice. 
We  find  that  the  Saxon  was  also  the  substratum  of  his  style. 
He  is  said  to  have  sixty  per  cent,  of  native  Saxon  words, 
and  the  English  Bible  has  about  the  same.  Milton  has  less 
than  thirty -three  per  cent.  Shakspeare  had,  as  before  re- 
marked, a  comparatively  restricted  vocabulary,  not  exceed- 
ing, it  is  said,  fifteen  thousand  words.  His  afiiuence  of 
language,  according  to  Marsh,  arises  from  his  variety  of 
combination,  rather  than  his  numerical  abundance  of  words; 
he  stood  at  the  culmination  of  the  strength  and  richness  of 
the  English  tongue,  after  Spenser  and  many  skilful  writers 
since  Chaucer's  day  had  moulded  and  refined  it ;  and  yet  it 
had  not  lost  its  simple  English  character.  The  naturalness, 
sweetness,  expression,  and  force  of  Shakspeare's  language 
sprang  from  this  source.  But  Shakspeare  also  knew  how 
to  use  the  resources  of  the  classical  words  of  the  language, 
in  order  to  give  variety,  subtilty,  elegance,  and  a  lofty 
majesty  to  his  thought.  Shakspeare  proved  that  the  Eng- 
lish language  is  the  finest  instrument  of  thought  man  ever 
had  —  capable  of  the  most  varied  expression,  whether  it 
takes  the  form  of  precise  thinking,  or  of  the  highest  soar- 
ings of  the  imagination.  There  is  a  spiritual  quality  in 
the  English  which  no  other  language  possesses  in  an  equal 
degree ;  and  this  has  always  been  its  characteristic,  for  a 
language  expresses  the  history  and  spirit  of  a  race ;  and 
in  the  English  race,  with  all  its  grossness  and  earthliness, 
the  moral  and  spiritual  element  has  predominated.  "It 
is  in  this  inherited  quality  of  moral  revelation,  which  has 
been  perpetuated  and  handed  down  from  the  tongue  of  the 
Gothic  conquerors  to  its  English  first-born,  that  lies,  in  good 
part,  the  secret  of  Shakspeare's  power  of  bodying  forth  so 
much  of  man's  internal  being,  and  clothing  so  many  of 
his  mysterious  sympathies  in  living  words."  ^  We  doubt 
whether  so  great  a  genius  as  Shakspeare,  or  even  a  greater, 


Marsh's  Eng.  Lang.,  &c.,  p.  94. 


§  21.       THE    STUDY    OF   LANGUAGE.  241 

if  we  could  conceive  of  such,  could  have  written  his  dramas 
in  the  French  language.  And  Shakspeare  must  have  fully 
appreciated  the  moral  richness  and  power  of  his  mother 
tongue,  to  use  it  as  he  did ;  for  the  opinion  that  prevailed 
so  long,  that  Shakspeare  was  a  poet  of  nature,  without  art, 
—  born,  not  made,  —  while  in  one  sense  true,  in  another  is 
not  true.  He  was  a  transcendent  genius,  but  he  shows 
everywhere  the  artist ;  though  perhaps  there  never  was  an 
artist  who  wrought  less  on  established  rules. 

What  is  the  secret  of  the  wonderful  freshness  of  Shak- 
speare's  language,  so  that  it  is  always  new,  always  wet  with 
the  morning  dew,  when  the  works  of  other  great  authors  grow 
obsolete  ?  This  is  a  question  worthy  of  our  special  study. 
The  language  of  Shakspeare  is  so  completely  the  expression 
of  his  mind  that  we  think  of  the  beauty  of  the  thought,  and 
are  moved  by  the  pathos  or  power  of  what  is  said,  but  we 
never  think  of  the  language  itself,  unless,  indeed,  we  study  it. 
This  is  the  perfection  of  language ;  this  is  to  have  the  lan- 
guage one  with  the  thought,  the  true  expression  of  the  spirit. 
In  his  language  we  look  upon  the  real  mind  or  spirit  of 
Shakspeare,  unconfused  by  the  medium  through  which  it  is 
expressed.  That,  surely,  is  one  of  the  great  sources  of  his 
power.  While  thus  a  limpid  expression  of  his  thought,  it 
by  no  means  follows  that  all  of  Shakspeare's  language  has 
this  achromatic  character.  It  is  sometimes  obscure,  dark, 
difficult  to  be  understood ;  but  that  springs  from  the  depth 
of  the  thought,  and  not  from  the  obscurity  of  the  language. 
Here  the  language  suits  the  thought,  and  is  born  with  it. 

Shakspeare's  style,  contrary  to  the  prevailing  canon  of 
literary  taste  at  the  present  day,  is  highly  metaphorical. 
Oftentimes  his  most  profound  and  exquisite  thinking  utters 
itself  in  this  way ;  and  although  it  may  be  called  the  lan- 
guage of  poetry,  yet  it  is  a  question  whether  the  total  dis- 
regard of  the  metaphorical  style  of  thought — a  style  which 
springs  from  the  closest  relations  of  nature  to  the  mind  — 
is  not  a  loss  of  vital  power  in  style. 
21 


242  PREACHING. 

3.  The  English  Bible.  It  is  wonderful  how  the  English 
translators  of  the  Bible  struck  the  golden  mean  between 
the  Latin  and  the  original  Saxon.  "There  was,  indeed, 
something  still  deeper  than  love  of  sound  and  genuine 
English  at  work  in  our  translators,  whether  they  W'ere 
conscious  of  it  or  not,  which  hindered  them  from  sending 
the  Scriptures  to  their  fellow-countrymen  dressed  out  in 
a  semi-Latin  garb.  The  Reformation,  which  they  were  in 
this  translation  so  mightily  strengtheninf?  and  confirminij, 
was  just  a  throwing  off,  on  the  part  of  the  Teutonic  nations, 
of  that  everlasting  pupilage  in  which  Rome  would  have  held 
them ;  an  assertion,  at  length,  that  they  were  come  to  full 
age,  and  that  not  through  her,  but  directly  through  Christ, 
they  would  address  themselves  unto  God.  The  use  of  the 
Latin  language  as  the  language  of  worship,  as  the  language 
in  which  the  Scriptures  might  alone  be  read,  had  been  the 
great  badge  of  servitude,  even  as  the  Latin  habits  of  thought 
and  feeling  which  it  promoted  had  been  the  great  helps  to 
the  continuance  of  this  servitude  through  long  ages.  It  lay 
deep  in  the  very  nature  ofr  their  course  that  the  reformers 
should  develop  the  Saxon,  or  essentially  national,  element 
in  the  language."  ^ 

The  King  James  version  was  completed  and  published  in 
1611.  In  the  great  religious  controversies  at  and  after  that 
period,  this  version  became  the  quoted  authority,  the  stan- 
dard of  appeal ;  and  thus  it  planted  itself  deep  in  the  mind 
and  heart  of  the  people,  so  that  not  only  in  a  spiritual,  but 
linguistic  point  of  view,  it  has  exerted  a  more  shaping  influ- 
ence on  our  language  than  any  other  volume.  If  Chaucer 
was  the  harbinger,  the  English  Bible  was  the  finisher  or 
perfecter,  of  the  English  language.  It  is  not  merely  the 
colloquial  language,  nor  merely  the  book  language ;  it  is 
rather  the  popular  religious  language,  or  the  choice  phrase- 
ology of  the  best  Christian  minds  of  the  nation.  England 
had  been  Protestant  for  nearly  a  century  when  our  English 

•  Trench's  English,  Past  and  Present,  p.  39. 


§  21.       THE   STUDY   OF   LANGUAGE.  243 

version  was  made,  and  Wycliffe's,  Tyndale's,  Matthews', 
Coverdale's,  and  Cranmer's  translations  had  been  in  the 
hands  of  the  people,  the  first  of  them  from  the  fourteenth 
century.  Our  version  was  not  a  new  one,  but  was  founded 
upon  those  previous  translations,  with  but  slight  changes 
of  expression,  so  that  it  marks  the  growth  and  perfection 
of  the  language  during  its  whole  formative  period.  It  looks 
far  back,  as  well  as  far  forward  ;  it  stretches  over  the  entire 
history  of  thc'-English  language  ;  it  embodies  essentially  the 
best  speech  of  the  English  people  during  at  least  five  cen- 
turies ;  it  is  the  most  genuine  English  since  the  time  when 
the  English  language  became  the  real  expression  of  English 
thought ;  and  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  best  usage  of 
words  at  this  moment  is  more  nearly  assimilated  to  the  style 
of  the  English  version  of  the  Bible  than  it  was  a  century  or 
two  centuries  ago,  showing  that  the  English  Bible  exerts  a 
constant  attraction  and  conservative  influence  npon  the  lan- 
guage. We  cannot  get  far  away  from  it  and  still  be  English. 
It  is,  we  think,  not  one  of  the  least  advantages  of  our  pro- 
fession, even  in  a  rhetorical  point  of  view,  that  we  are  driven 
to  the  constant  reading  and  study  of  the  English  Bible.  It 
should  exert  a  strong  influence  upon  our  style ;  ought  we 
not  to  study  it  continually,  even  for  that  purpose?  Cole- 
ridge said,  "Intense  stud}^  of  the  Bible  will  keep  any  writer 
from  being  vulgar  in  point  of  style."  It  will  also  enrich 
and  invigorate,  for  there  is  just  that  mingling  of  prose  and 
poetry  in  the  Bible  which  marks  the  highest  and  richest 
character  in  style.  "  We  should  take  this  silent  warning 
from  the  pages  of  revelation,  and  combine  in  our  literary  cul- 
ture the  same  elements  of  the  actual  and  the  imaginative."  ^ 

In  addition  to  what  has  been  said  of  the  literary  and  philo- 
logical study  of  our  language,  we  would  remark  that  it  should 
be  studied  as  it  is  used  among  living  7nen.  This  we  have 
before  urged.     As  preachers,  we  are  called  upon  to  leave 

*  Eeed's  Eng.  Lit.,  p.  75. 


244  PREACHING. 

the  lauguage  of  books,  and  to  take  up  that  of  living  men, 
purified  of  its  debasements.  We  are  to  study  the  speech 
of  intelligent  men  and  women,  as  we  hear  it  every  day 
by  the  hearth,  in  the  streets,  and  by  the  way.  "Gram- 
maticasters  seek  the  history  of  language  in  written,  and 
especially  in  elegant,  literature;  but,  except  in  the  fleet- 
ing dialect  of  pedants,  linguistic  change  and  progress  begin 
in  oral  speech ;  and  it  is  long  before  the  pen  takes  up  and 
records  the  forms  and  words  which  have  become  estab- 
lished in  the  living  tongue.  If  you  would  know  the  pres- 
ent tendency  of  English,  go,  as  Luther  did,  to  the  market 
and  the  workshop  ;  you  will  there  hear  new  words  and  com- 
binations which  orators  and  poets  will  adopt  in  a  future  gen- 
eration." ^  We  are,  if  possible,  to  get  hold  of  the  spoken 
language.  We  should  possess  a  medium  of  communication 
with  the  common  heart.  Augustine  went  so  far,  when 
preaching  to  the  colonial  inhabitants  of  Africa,  as  to  speak 
their  broken  Latin  to  them.  We  should  rid  ourselves,  as 
far  as  possible,  of  the  language  of  books,  while  at  the  same 
time  we  retain  the  purifying  and  elevating  influences  of  true 
scholarship.  Old  Roger  Ascham's  rule  was  "to  speak  like 
a  common  man,  and  think  like  a  wise  man."  A  preacher 
who  cannot  talk  to  the  people  so  that  they  can  understand 
him  is  stopped  at  the  threshold  of  his  ministry. 

In  conclusion,  let  the  preacher  first  have  the  truth,  and 
then  know  how  to  express  it.  Let  him  not  neglect  the  last, 
while  acquiring  the  first.  Let  him  fill  his  soul  with  the 
truth,  and  then  seek  to  make  it  known  to  men.  This  can 
be  done  alone  through  language.  Language  makes  the 
word  "i^e  jpreached  word"  the  living  word,  which  is  able 
to  save  men's  souls. 

'  Marsh's  Eng.  Lang,  and  Lit.,  p.  452. 


§  22.     DELivERr.  245 


§  22.     Delivery. 

Some  writers  object  to  considering  "elocution,"  or  the 
delivery  of  a  discourse,  as  a  legitimate  part  of  rhetoric, 
inasmuch  as  the  mode  of  communicating  thought  or  truth 
is  not  the  essential  thing  in  rhetoric,  but  rather  the  com- 
municating of  thought  itself.  It  is  also  held  that  elocu- 
tion is  not  a  constituent  part  of  rhetoric,  because  there  are 
ways  of  communicating  thought  other  than  by  the  voice ; 
because  we  have  a  complete  product  of  art  when  the  thought 
is  embodied  in^^language  ;  and  because,  as  a  practical  matter, 
in  teaching  the  two,  it  is  better  to  keep  them  apart. ^  But 
we  think,  nevertheless,  that  anything  which  enables  us  to 
communicate  truth,  and  to  communicate  it  effectivel}^,  comes 
legitimately  under  the  art  of  rhetoric.  For  aught  we  can 
see,  elocution  has  just  as  much  right  to  be  considered  a  part 
of  rhetoric  as  has  style  of  composition ;  for  both  contribute 
to  the  effective  communication  of  truth.  At  all  events,  if 
elocution  is  not  in  the  strictest  sense  an  essential  part  of 
rhetoric,  yet  it  has  a  close  relation  to  it ;  and  if  rhetoric  be 
confined,  as  we  have  limited  it  in  our  definition,  to  the  art 
of  spohen  public  discourse,  it  has  a  vital  relation  to  it. 

To  preach  for<;ibly  calls  out  not  only  the  intellectual  ener- 
gies, the  eloquence  of  the  mind,  but  what  Cicero  calls  "the 
eloquence  of  the  body."  And  it  is  by  no  means  a  small 
thing,  or  a  hastily-won  accomplishment,  to  acquire  the  art 
of  a  good  delivery.  It  requires  great  pains  and  study  ;  for 
it  is  not  a  merely  mechanical  art,  but  it  calls  in  play  the 
taste,  the  judgment,  the  moral  and  emotional  nature,  and 
the  reasoning  powers.  Talma,  the  tragedian,  used  to  say 
that  thinldng  was  the  great  part  of  his  art.  It  is,  perhaps, 
one  of  the  remoter  consequences  of  the  sinfulness  of  man, 

1  Day's  Art  of  Discourse,  pp.  14,  15. 

21* 


246  PEEACHING. 

that  it  requires  a  process  of  art  to  get  back  to  nature,  and 
that  the  highest  art  is  only,  after  all,  to  be  natural.  And 
there  is  a  deeper  idea  still  in  the  delivery  of  a  sermon,  as 
distinguished  irom  every  other  form  of  discourse,  in  its  con- 
nection with  sjjii'itual  instrumentalities,  and  viewed  as  a 
medium  of  communicating  divine  truth.  What  was  White- 
field's  preaching,  looked  at  as  an  instrument  of  the  conver- 
sion of  men,  without  his  peculiar  power  of  delivery?  In 
such  a  delivery  the  Holy  Spirit  has  the  chief  controlling 
influence ;  the  highest  activities  of  the  spiritual  as  well  as 
intellectual  life  are  engaged  in  it ;  and  the  whole  man  is 
raised  and  transformed  into  an  instrument  of  God's  truth. 

W^hately  is  inclined  to  the  view  that  the  study  of  elocu- 
tion renders  the  speaker  artificial;  but  preachers  do  not 
usually  err  from  carrying  the  art  of  elocution  to  an  undue 
extent,  but  err  rather  from  a  careless  and  unimpressive 
manner.  Of  course,  exclusive  attention  should  not  be  given 
to  the  delivery,  and  in  the  act  of  speaking,  elocution  should 
be  forgotten  ;  but  this  is  not  saying  that  much  may  not  bo 
done  in  private  to  produce  an  unconsciously  noble  delivery. 
The  soldier  forgets  his  drill  in  action,  but  his  drill  makes 
him  a  better  soldier. 

The  study  of  elocution  has  its  good  effects,  too,  upon  the 
style.  One  will  be  more  careful  to  adapt  his  style  to  the 
purposes  of  speech  —  to  make  it  easy,  strong,  and  flowing. 
W^hat,  in  many  respects,  could  be  a  better  spoken  style 
for  popular  influence  than  Daniel  Webster's  ?  and  that  was 
gained  by  speaking  —  by  speaking  to  courts,  to  senates,  to 
great  audiences  of  human  beings,  for  immediate  effect  and 
conviction.  It  was  the  fruit  of  his  contact  and  contest  with 
other  minds  on  public  occasions.  His  style  became  fitted 
to  his  delivery.  The  actual  delivery  of  his  thoughts  im- 
proved and  vitalized  his  style.  And  the  benefits  of  a  good 
delivery  upon  an  audience  are  great ;  by  his  look,  tone, 
gesture,  a  speaker  infuses  himself  into  his  hearers'  minds, 
and  makes  them  for  the  time  think  and  feel  as  he  does. 


§  22.      DELIVERY.  247 

Robert  Hall,  it  is  said,  had  the  art,  not  only  of  communi- 
cating what  he  said,  but  of  communicating  himself,  to  his 
audience.  It  was  the  whole  man  speaking.  That  is  true 
eloquence.  How  man}'^  preachers  have  been  intellectual 
men  and  weighty  thinkers,  who  never  could  thus  communi- 
cate themselves  or  their  thoughts  to  other  minds  ! 

The  delivery  of  a  public  discourse  implies  especially  four 
things  :  Enunciation,  Pronunciation,  Emphasis,  and  Action. 

1.  Enunciation.  This  has  regard  to  the  fulness  and  per- 
fectness  of  vocal  sound  in  speaking,  and  it  includes  the 
whole  matter  of  the  management  and  traininsf  of  the  voice 
—  a  subject  of  no  little  importance  to  the  preacher.  There 
are  few  voices  —  particularly  if  they  belong  to  men  whom 
God  has  called  to  be  the  heralds  of  his  truth  —  so  faulty 
and  so  weak  by  nature  that  they  may  not  be  made,  by  a 
persevering  and  intelligent  training,  effective,  and,  it  may 
be,  powerful.  It  is  well,  therefore,  to  acquaint  one's  self 
thoroughly  with  the  physiology  of  the  organs  of  the  voice, 
which  are  so  delicate,  complicated,  and  wonderful.  If  a 
musician  should  perfectly  know  his  instrument,  and  should 
exercise  care  in  preserving  the  vigor  and  purity  of  its  tone, 
so  that  it  may  be  ready  to  give  forth  the  mightiest  and  the 
most  delicate  tones ;  how  much  more  should  the  speaker 
understand  and  guard  his  more  exquisite  instrument !  The 
first  simple,  common-sense  axiom  in  regard  to  the  voice  is, 
that  it  depends  for  its  strength  and  clearness  upon  a  general 
sound  state  of  health.  A  man  in  bad  health  will  show  it  in 
his  voice,  in  its  feebleness  or  harshness ;  for  in  ill  health, 
the  muscular  system,  u^dou  which  the  voice  depends,  is 
relaxed ;  and  a  man  with  a  cracked  voice  is  little  better 
than  a  cracked  bell  or  a  cracked  musical  instrument.  The 
preacher  should  strive  to  maintain  a  good,  vigorous  tone 
of  health,  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  a  good  vocal  tone. 
He  should  regard  his  body^s  an  instrument  in  God's  hands 
to  proclaim  his  word ;  it  should  be  kept  strong  and  pure,  as 


248  PREACHING. 

the  medium  of  divine  iuspiration  and  instruction.  The 
"Baptist's"  living  in  the  free  solitudes  of  nature,  and  feed- 
ing upon  locusts  and  wild  honey,  ma}^  have  had  something 
to  do  in  making  the  strong  "  voice  "  of  one  crying  in  the 
wilderness,  "Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord." 

A  second  plain  axiom  in  regard  to  the  voice  is,  that  one 
should  speak  upon  a  full  inhalation  of  air.  The  chest  is  the 
seat  of  vocal  power.  One  should  be  careful,  in  speaking, 
that  the  reservoir  of  air  in  the  chest  is  never  exhausted ; 
he  should  take  air  in,  as  well  as  force  it  out ;  and  a  clear, 
full,  and,  at  the  same  time,  delicate,  enunciation  comes  from 
having  air  enough,  and  using  all  the  air  inhaled,  "  speak- 
ing with  the  whole  of  ourselves,  and  not  merely  with  the 
throat  and  lips."  Upon  this  full  column  of  air  in  the  chest 
the  voice  should  ring  freely  in  the  head,  as  in  the  top  of  a 
dome,  not  confining  it  to  the  chest,  but  using  the  chest-voice 
only  as  a  basis ;  for  it  is  a  false  rule  not  to  employ  the  head 
(vocally)  in  speaking.  It  is  the  concavity  of  the  mouth  and 
head  which  gives  the  resonant  and  sonorous  quality  to  the 
voice — a  quality  lamentably  wanting  in  some  of  our  Ameri- 
can speakers. 

Still  another  suggestion  in  regard  to  the  voice  and  the 
enunciation  is,  that  one  should  strive  for  a  natural  tone. 
"  The  voice  is  first  to  be  formed.  It  is  to  be  strengthened  by 
an  increased  capacity  of  the  lungs,  and  an  acquired,  strong, 
respiratory  action.  Its  thorough  discipline  must  be  mas- 
tered, from  the  lightest  whisper  to  the  loudest  shouting ; 
not  with  a  view  to  actual  use,  but  for  securing  a  command 
over  every  degree  of  force  and  pliancy.  Even  in  a  few 
weeks  a  stentorian  power  can  be  imparted  to  a  comparatively 
weak  voice."  ^  But,  notwithstaudins:  all  that  mav  be  done 
to  discipline  and  train  the  voice,  it  should  still  be  a  natural 
voice  ;  for  an  artificial  voice,  let  it  be  never  so  good,  is  less 
effective  than  a  natural  one ;  it  unpleasantly  suggests  some- 
thing artificial  in  the  man  or  in  his  thoughts.    Every  person 

'  Frobisher's  Voice  and  Action,  p.  19. 


§  22.      DELIVERY.  249 

has  his  own  natural  pitch  of  voice,  one  that  is  nicely  adapted 
to  his  mind  and  temperament.  Let  him  not  strive  to  change 
this  divine  arrangement,  and  take  up  another  man's  instru- 
ment. Let  him  speak  with  his  own  voice,  and  not  with 
that  of  some  other  preacher  or  speaker,  whom  he  has  select- 
ed as  a  model.  Above  all,  let  him  not  speak  like  an  old 
man  while  he  is  still  a  young  man ;  we  wish  to  hear  the 
fresh,  high,  varied  tones  of  youth  in  the  voice  of  a  young 
man.  Therefore,  as  we  have  before  suggested,  let  not  even 
head-tones  be  avoided,  — the  highest  radical  tones,  —  if  one 
is  only  mindful  to  have  a  chest-tone  as  a  basis.  Let  the 
voice  play  freely  and  naturally  up  and  down,  like  a  musical 
instrument.  This  is  agreeable  to  hear,  and  it  relieves  the 
speaker.  It  is  well  to  speak  in  the  pitch  that  one  would 
use  in  common  conversation,  only  clearer  and  fuller;  and 
yet  some  speakers  assume  a  tone  which  is  entirely  unnat- 
ural—  a  declamatory  tone,  or  a  solemn  tone,  or  a  "holy 
tone  ;  "  as  if  preaching  was  anything  else  than  talking  loud 
enough  for  a  large  audience  to  hear  distinctly.  "Placing 
himself,  then,  in  the  position  of  an  authorized  teacher,  and 
theoretically  speaking  his  own  words,  he  must  adopt  a  tone 
and  manner  correspondirig  to  his  position.  His  tone  must 
be  his  conversational  tone,  and  his  manner  (reverential  as 
to  the  Deity,  colloquial  as  to  the  congregation)  his  natural 
manner,  varied,  indeed,  according  to  the  subject,  but  still 
so  really  his  own  that  any  listening  friend  would  recognize 
him  to  be  the  speaker  by  his  tone  and  manner  alone."  ^ 

Every  public  speaker  should,  as  the  least  he  can  do,  en- 
deavor to  remedy  or  improve  the  imperfections  of  his  own 
voice.  If  he  has  a  feeble  voice,  let  him  strive  to  give  it 
more  fulness ;  if  he  has  a  thick  and  guttural  voice,  let  him 
aim  at  greater  clearness  and  refinement  of  tone  ;  if  he  has  a 

'  Gould's  Good  English,  p.  181  (Clerical  Elocution).  "We  would  commend 
this  brief  essay  on  elocution  as  one  of  the  best  upon  this  subject.  The  author 
maintains  that  any  intelligent  speaker  can,  with  thought  and  care,  be  a  self- 
instructor  in  elocution. 


250  PREACHING. 

raspiDg,  harsh  voice,  let  him  endeavor  to  soften  and  sweeten 
it,  to  take  off  its  wire-edge  ;  but  with  all  this,  let  him  accept 
the  voice  God  has  given  him,  and  use  it,  and  not  another 
man's ;  and,  strange  as  it  may  sound,  so  many  are  the  faults 
which  one  is  apt  to  fall  into  by  education,  that  it  requires 
great  study  and  labor  to  speak  naturall3^ 

As  a  last  suggestion,  one  should  strive  for  a  pure  tone; 
for  this,  more  than  anything  else,  indicates  the  cultivated 
speaker.  A  pure  tone  is  that  which  is  free  from  all  false 
tones.  A  false  tone,  as  distinguished  from  a  pure  tone, 
arises  from  some  imperfect  respiration,  or  false  carriage  of 
the  voice;  as,  for  instance,  ^pectoral  tone,  which  comes 
from  an  imperfect  use  of  the  lungs.  Those  who  have  the 
misfortune  to  be  consumptive,  or  those  who  have  weak 
lungs,  are  apt  to  have  the  pectoral  tone.  Fuller  and  more 
vigorous  respiration  is  needed  for  them.  The  voice,  if  pos- 
sible, should  be  lifted  out  of,  or,  at  least,  not  be  sufl'ered  to 
lie  buried  in,  the  sepulchre  of  the  chest,  where  it  rumbles 
in  hollow  tones.  A  preacher  should  stand  erect,  so  that  all 
the  organs  of  speech  can  have  free  play.  He  should  not  be 
a  lecturer,  but  a  preacher  ;  and  it  is  here  that  the  extempore 
speaker  has  an  immense  advantage.  The  whole  apparatus 
of  the  vocal  organs  is  to  be  employed  in  producing  a  clear, 
pure  tone ;  and  a  speaker  should  find  out  by  practice,  and 
by  the  criticism  of  friends,  where  his  defect  lies,  or  in  what 
one  imperfectly  used  organ ;  and  thus  he  may  effectually 
cure  a  natural  faultiness  of  voice,  and,  by  persistent  effort, 
bring  up  even  a  weak  voice  to  great  power  and  efficiency. 

We  would  add  that  clearness,  rather  than  extreme  loud- 
ness, is  best  suited  for  the  pulpit-voice  —  that  full,  audi- 
ble, manly,  even,  flowing  enunciation  on  which  one  can 
easily  weave  all  characters  and  varieties  of  tone,  from  the 
most  delicate  to  the  most  vehement.  Quintilian  finely  re- 
marks, "That  delivery  is  elegant  which  is  supported  by  a 
voice  that  is  easy,  powerful,  sweet,  well  sustained,  clear, 
pure,  that  cuts  the  air  and  penetrates  the  ear;  for  there  is 


§  22.       DELIVEEY.  251 

a  kind  of  voice  naturally  qualified  to  make  itself  heard,  not 
by  its  strength,  but  by  a  peculiar  excellence  of  tone  —  a 
voice  which  is  obedient  to  the  will  of  the  speaker,  suscep- 
tible of  every  variety  of  sound  and  inflection  that  can  be 
required,  and  possessed  of  all  the  notes  of  a  inusical  instru- 
ment: and  to  maintain  it  there  should  be  streuo-th  of  lunsfs, 
and  breath  that  can  be  steadily  prolonged,  and  is  not  likely 
to  sink  under  labor.  Neither  the  lowest  musical  tone,  nor 
the  highest,  is  proper  for  oratory ;  for  the  lowest,  which  is 
far  from  being  clear,  and  is  too  full,  can  make  no  impres- 
sion on  the  minds  of  an  audience ;  and  the  highest,  which 
is  very  sharp,  rising  above  the  natural  pitch,  is  not  suscep- 
tible of  inflection  from  pronunciation,  nor  can  it  endure  to 
be  kept  long  on  the  stretch  ;  for  the  voice  is  like  the  strings 
of  an  instrument :  the  more  relaxed  it  is,  the  graver  and 
fuller  its  tone ;  the  more  it  is  stretched,  the  more  thin  and 
sharp  is  its  sound.  Thus  a  voice  in  the  lowest  key  wants 
force ;  in  the  highest,  is  in  danger  of  being  cracked.  We 
must  therefore  cultivate  the  middle  tones,  w^hich  may  be 
raised  when  we  speak  with  vehemence,  and  lowered  when 
we  deliver  ourselves  with  gentleness."  ^ 

In  reading  the  Scriptures^  the  voice  should,  as  a  general 
rule,  move  upon  a  monotone,  but  without  becoming  monoto- 
nous ;  it  should  rise  and  fall  easily,  according  to  the  sense. 
There  should  be  something  of  the  same  easy  variety  in  the 
tone  as  there  is  in  common  conversation.  Practice  is  re- 
quired in  the  proper  use  of  cadence,  and  there  are  many 
sublime  passages  of  Scripture,  especially  in  the  book  of 
Revelation,  which  should  be  read  with  something  of  a  swell 
in  the  voice  ;  so  also  should  many  of  the  poetical  passages 
of  the  Old  Testament.  The  prayer  and  the  reading  of  the 
hymns  require  the  preacher  to  vary  his  simple  tone,  in  order 
to  mark  elevation  of  thought  and  feeling ;  though  this  may 
be  easily  overdone,  as  in  the  case  of  the  poet's  divine,  who 

'  Instit.,  B.  XL,  c.  iii.,  s.  42. 


252         •  PEEACHING. 

"  gives  to  prayer 
The  adagio  and  andante  it  demands." 

The  words  "  Give  attention  to  reading  "  might  be  addressed 
in  their  most  literal  sense  to  the  preacher ;  for  reading  the 
Scriptures  has  been  rightly  called  "  a  continuous  commen- 
tary of  the  text." 

There  is  no  instrument  more  capable  of  cultivation  than 
the  human  voice  ;  no  instrument  that  equals  it  in  beauty, 
richness,  scope,  and  power ;  its  thunder  tones  rouse  and 
roll  through  the  inmost  depths  of  the  conscience ;  its  flute- 
like notes  fill  the  mind  with  harmonious  visions  of  happiness 
and  peace ;  its  pathos  touches  the  springs  of  the  heart,  and 
makes  wicked  men  feel  like  children,  and  weej)  like  chil- 
dren over  their  wrong-doings. 

The  second  element  of  delivery,  Pronunciation,  is  simply 
to  utter  articulately,  or  to  give,  with  clear  precision,  to  every 
vocal  element,  whether  vowel  or  consonant,  its  proper  artic- 
ulate sound.  This  distinguishes  an  educated  and  refined, 
from  a  slovenly  and  uncultivated,  pronunciation. 

Emjpliasis,  when  rightly  given,  is  also  a  great  beauty 
in  speaking.  It  does  not  consist  in  mere  loudness,  but 
rather  in  an  indescribable  variety  of  tones  and  modulations. 
It  is  thought,  for  example,  by  some  preachers,  that  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  to  pronounce  terrible  words  in  a  ter- 
rible manner,  in  loud  and  startling  tones  of  voice ;  but  it 
is  generally  more  emphatic  and  solemnly  impressive  when 
the  feeling  of  awe  which  such  Avords  should  inspire  leads 
us  to  sink  the  voice,  though  without  softening  or  weaken- 
ing it. 

"Correct  accent  is  indispensable  to  spirited,  tasteful,  and 
intelligent  reading  and  speaking ;  every  accented  word  be- 
comes the  seat  of  life  in  utterance.  A  feeble  and  inexpres- 
sive utterance  kills  the  thoughts  of  the  speaker."  ^ 

The  severest  argument  may  be  lighted  up  by  a  discrimi- 

*  Vandenlioff 's  Clerical  Assistant. 


§  22.      DELIVERY.  253 

nating  emphasis,  just  as  a  painter,  when  he  has  almost  fin- 
ished his  picture,  puts  in,  here  and  there,  what  he  calls  the 
"lights  ; "  and  so  Nature,  if  one  observes  a  landscape,  always 
distributes  her  lights  —  not  in  masses,  but  in  points. 

Whately  decries  the  artificial  study  of  emphasis.  He 
says,  "  Fill  your  mind  M'ith  the  matter ;  be  inspired  by  it ; 
be  sincerely  desirous  of  imparting  it  to  your  hearers ;  and 
then  your  emphasis  will  take  care  of  itself."  That  is  good 
advice  as  far  as  it  goes.  But  how  many  good  and  zealous 
ministers  are  very  ineffective  preachers  !  It  would  seem  to 
be  better  to  fill  one's  mind  with  his  sermon,  and  with  the 
desire  to  impart  the  truth  it  contains,  and  then  study  it  to 
know  how  this  may  best  be  done.  There  should  be  a  study 
of  emphasis  if  for  no  other  reason  than  to  avoid  having  too 
much  emphasis,  as  is  the  case  with  some  preachers,  which 
makes  a  ranting  style,  that  wearies  both  hearer  and  speaker ; 
for  violence  in  elocution  is  not  force. 

Action  is  natural  to  man  in  speaking.  The  child  gestures 
when  he  talks,  and  it  is  well  to  observe  the  gestures  of  chil- 
dren, and  to  note  their  freedom,  grace,  and  efiectiveness ; 
for  well-timed  and  natural  gesture  adds  greatly  to  the  power 
of  speech.  There  is,  however,  a  difierence  of  opinion  in 
regard  to  the  propriety  of  much  or  little  action,  and  of  little 
or  no  action,  in  the  pulpit.  Audiences  themselves  difier 
here.  Some  speakers  who  enchain  their  audiences  while 
standing  stiff  as  poles  —  enchain  them  by  their  thoughts — 
would  be  considered  dull  preachers  by  other  audiences,  who 
like  to  see  the  dust  fly  from  the  cushion.  There  is  an  oaken 
desk  shown  at  Eisenach,  in  Germany,  which  Luther  broke 
with  his  fist  in  preaching. 

Notwithstanding  this  difference  of  opinion,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  some  gesture,  some  timely  and  animated 
action,  is  good  for  the  preacher.  European  and  Oriental 
nations  gesture  constantly,  both  in  conversation  and  public 
speaking ;  and  we  have  no  doubt  that  Demosthenes  and  the 
22 


254  PREACHING. 

great  orators  of  antiquity  used  much,  and  at  times  vehe- 
ment, gesture. 

The  simple  rule  in  gesture  would  seem  to  be,  that  while 
it  should  be  free  and  natural,  like  a  child's,  it  should  not  be 
carried  to  an  excess ;  that  is  worse  than  no  action  at  all ; 
none  at  all  is  at  least  safe,  if  not  eloquent.  There  should 
be,  in  fact,  a  certain  thoughtful  restraint  in  gesture,  and 
just  enough  of  art  to  avoid  awkward,  improper,  and  mis- 
placed action. 

Some  men  incline  by  temperament  to  a  great  deal  of 
action  in  speaking :  let  them  not  wholly  restrain  it,  for  then 
they  would  be  unnatural ;  but  let  them  be  careful  that  the 
action  be  fit,  and  subordinate  to  the  thought.  Other  men 
incline  to  little  or  no  gesture  :  let  them  be  careful  not  to 
become  excessive  in  their  stiff  monotony.  It  is  best,  per- 
haps, for  a  young  preacher  to  gesture  as  little  as  possible, 
until  he  gets  used  to  preaching,  and  feels  free  to  be  him- 
self in  the  pulpit.  Audiences  are  involuntarily  on  the  watch 
to  discover  the  evidences  of  art  in  the  sermon,  and  in  the 
style  of  delivery,  of  a  young  preacher.  When  they  see  the 
rhetorical  education  in  him,  he  ceases  to  impress  them  with 
what  he  is  saying.  Audiences  ought  to  be  disappointed. 
here.  There  should  be  no  mannerism  of  action  to  divert 
attention  from  the  plain  message  of  God  Avhich  the  young 
preacher  is  delivering. 

All  gestures  should  be  free  and  flowing,  not  cramped  and 
confined.  There  should  be  nothing  small,  fiistidious,  and 
mincing  in  gesture,  since  the  idea  of  man's  greatness  should 
be  before  us  in  the  orator.  Cicero  commends,  in  oratory, 
"  a  bold  and  manly  action  of  body,  not  learned  from  the 
theatre  and  the  player,  but  from  the  camp,  or  even  from 
the  palaestra."  ^  There  is,  indeed,  much  in  the  ancient  idea 
of  the  "free  elbow."  Page,  the  artist,  sagaciously  remarks, 
that  the  superiority  of  ancient  sculpture  over  modern  con- 
sists chiefly  in  its  bold  angles  ;  and  he  gives  as  an  illustra- 

'  De  Oratore,  B.  III. 


§  22.       DELIVERY.  255 

tion  the  attitude  of  one  of  the  sons  of  Niobe,  stretching  his 
widely-extended  arms  to  heaven.  Pulpits  should  be  made 
to  admit  of  this  large  and  free  action.  They  should  be  so 
made  that  nearly  the  whole  of  the  preacher's  form  can  be 
seen ;  for  true  gesture  is  the  speaking  of  the  whole  man, 
of  all  his  limbs,  and  even  of  his  feet ;  and  perhaps  the  good 
time  will  come  when  the  pulpit,  with  a  desk  for  notes,  will 
be  abolished  altogether,  and  the  preacher  will  stand  up  in 
his  simple  manhood,  with  nothing  adventitious  about  him, 
and  speak  the  word  with  naturalness,  spontaneity,  and  free- 
dom, fresh  from  the  heart. 

Minima  auxilia  ne  spernamus.  Nothing  is  too  small, 
nothing  too  trilfling,  which  helps  us  to  become  better  preach- 
ers. In  the  delivery  of  a  discourse  on  so  solemn  a  theme 
as  that  of  divine  truth,  we  should  at  least  strive  to  avoid 
anything  which  will  mar  the  effect  of  the  sacred  message  — 
any  inexcusable  carelessness  of  speaking,  awkwardness  of 
manner,  harshness  of  voice,  flippancy  of  tone,  or  wearisorae- 
ness  of  monotony.  The  delivery  should  be  natural,  affection- 
ate, and  free.  It  should  have  not  only  manly  dignity  and 
simplicity,  but  cheerful  variety,  and,  above  all,  noble  action, 
which  may  be  the  medium  of  the  divine  energy.  To  quote 
from  an  admirable  essay  of  Dr.  Skinner  (Am.  Pres.  and 
Theol.  Rev.,  January,  1865),  "Action,  which  is  more  than 
knowledge,  needs  aids  for  itself.  In  elocutionary  action,  as 
well  as  in  thinking  and  writing,  the  preacher,  however  quali- 
fied by  self-culture,  can  attain  to  no  degree  of  spirituality 
by  merely  natural  effort.  If  the  activity  of  a  preacher  in 
speaking  —  the  eloquence  of  the  body  —  be  indeed  spiritual, 
it  is  doubtless  a  higher  exercise  of  the  spiritual  life  than 
either  of  its  other  exercises  in  the  business  of  preaching. 
It  must  needs  be  so,  if  it  be  answerable  in  all  respects 
to  the  unique  and  mj^sterious  exigencies  of  such  a  work 
as  delivering  appropriately  the  inspired  word  of  God,  as 
a  vehicle  and  representative  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Apart 
from  a  very  special  operation  of  the  Spirit  himself,  who  is 


256  PREACHING. 

sufficient  for  the  just  performance  of  this  work?  Spiritual 
things,  expressing  themselves  fitly,  in  spiritual  modulations 
of  the  voice,  spiritual  looks,  spiritual  attitudes,  the  super- 
natural exerting  itself  in  and  through  these  bodily  signs  of 
thought  and  feeling  —  think  of  one's  having  in  himself  a 
sufficiency  for  this  !  The  apostles,  with  all  their  gifts  for 
other  uses,  had  it  not ;  nay,  even  our  Lord's  spirituality 
of  mind  and  knowledge,  added  to  the  perfectly  natural  use 
of  the  human  powers,  did  not  qualify  him  adequately  for 
the  business  of  dispensing  the  word,  independently  of  the 
continued  co-agency  of  the  Spirit  in  this  specific  business ; 
even  he  delivered  his  discourses  under  the  anointing  and  in 
the  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God."  (Luke  4  :  18  ;  21  :  14.) 
As  the  result  of  this  reasoning,  the  conclusion  is  drawn 
that  "  in  all  preliminary  work  in  reference  to  actual  delivery, 
the  preacher  must  abide  in  communion  with  the  Holy  Spirit." 

§  23.      To.ste  in  Preaching. 

Taste  has  been  defined  as  ^HJiat  faculty  of  the  mind  which 
enables  it  to  perceive,  with  the  aid  of  reason  to  judge  of  and 
ivith  the  help  of  imagination  to  enjoy ^  whatever  is  heautifid 
or  sublime  in  the  works  of  nature  and  art.""  ^  It  aims  to 
establish  correct  principles  of  criticism  in  relation  to  the 
production  of  the  beautiful  in  art. 

Preaching  would  be  debased  by  calling  it  an  jesthetical 
art ;  yet  sesthetical  principles  must  more  or  less  enter  into 
it,  so  far  as  it  may  come  under  rhetorical  rules. 

Quatremere  De  Quincey,  in  his  work  on  the  Fine  Arts, 
places  poetry  at  the  head  of  the  sesthetical  arts,  as  being  the 
purest  product  of  the  mental  idea  of  beauty,  and  the  far- 
thest removed  from  the  material  object :  then  comes  music  ; 
then  painting ;  then  sculpture  ;  then  architecture  ;  then  the 
various  mechanical  and  illustrative  arts.  We  would,  how- 
ever, be  disposed  to  give  to  oratory  the  first  place,  so  far  as 

'  Quackenbos's  Rhetoric,  p.  170. 


§  23.      TASTE   IN   PREACHING.  257 

it  is  an  aesthetic  art,  because  it  acts  more  immediately  upon 
tlie  soul ;  because  it  is  more  free  and  spiritual  than  any 
other  art ;  and  because  it  deals  almost  exclusively  with  pure 
ideas.  Certainly,  this  is  true  of  preaching.  That  oratory  is 
an  art  there  can  be  no  doubt,  for  it  is  a  system  of  means  to 
an  end,  and  of  the  most  exquisite  and  intellectual  kind; 
but  it  is  not  wholly  an  art,  for  the  useful  and  practical 
predominate  in  it  far  more  than  the  beautiful;  and  the 
beautiful  itself,  in  oratory,  is  but  relative,  or  what  is  fitted 
to  increase  the  power  and  usefulness  of  oratory.  It  is, 
in  fact,  by  the  assistance  which  it  renders,  by  the  power 
which  it  lends  to  the  efficiency  of  the  oratorical  art  in  its 
great  ends,  that  the  idea  of  the  beautiful  can  enter  at  all 
into  oratory.^ 

The  preacher  surely  should  not  aim  at  the  beautiful,  so  far 
as  to  make  it  his  end ;  but  the  principles  of  good  taste,  of 
true  harmony  and  beauty,  should  be  in  his  mind,  so  that  all 
its  productions  should  unconsciously  take  the  highest  form 
of  true  beauty.  "  WJiatsoever  things  are  honesty  whatsoever 
things  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things 
are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report,^^  —  these 
noble  and  beautiful  forms  of  things  he  is  called  to  think 
upon,  and  he  dwells  perpetually  in  their  high  communion 
and  meditation.  They  are  chiefly  forms  of  mental  and 
moral  beauty  with  him.  "All  high  ideas  of  beauty,"  says 
Ruskin,  "depend  probably  on  delicate  perceptions  of  fit- 
ness, propriety,  relation,  &c.,  which  are  purely  intellectual.''^ 
They  are  taken  out  of  their  sensible  relations  with  the  visi- 
ble world,  and  become  ideal  forms  or  types  of  beaut}'-  in  the 
mind,  associated  with  sacred  and  eternal  things,  and  with 
God  himself. 

While,  then,  the  preacher  does  not,  and  should  not,  aim 
chiefly  at  the  beautiful  in  art,  he  still  may  come  through  the 
beautiful  into  the  good ;  and  he  more  and  more  will  find,  as 

'  Bib.  Sacra,  vol.  ii.,  p.  31. 

22* 


258  PREACHING. 

li'e^hters  into  the  higher  things  of  God,  that  the  t6  xaX6p  and 
the  70  (xyadop  are  one,  that  truth  is  beauty,  and  that  a  mighty 
power  in  preaching  the  gospel  lies  in  its  appeal  to  the  uni- 
versal ajsthetic  principle  in  the  human  heart.  We  would 
be  willing  to  found  this  assertion  upon  no  less  an  authority, 
though  probably,  to  some,  an  unexpected  one,  than  Jonathan 
Edwards,  in  the  third  chapter  of  his  treatise  on  The  Nature 
of  True  Virtue. 

Esthetics,  looked  upon  as  an  art,  or  as  a  department  of 
mental  science,  chiefly  applies,  according  to  the  Kantian 
use  of  the  term,  to  the  form  of  thought  which  any  beauti- 
ful object  of  nature  or  art  assumes ;  it  does  not  refer  pri- 
marily to  the  thought  or  character  of  the  object  to  which  it 
is  applied.  But  real  beauty  resides  ultimately  in  the  idea; 
first  of  all  in  the  absolute  idea  of  beauty  itself,  which  has 
its  type  in  the  divine  creative  mind ;  thence  it  enters  into 
the  conception  of  the  human  mind ;  and  from  that  concep- 
tion a  product  of  beauty  is  born,  which  is  the  outward 
expression  of  this  ideal  form.  Beauty  has  been  defined  to 
be  the  union  of  the  real  and  the  ideal,  or  the  ideal  expressed 
in  form.^  The  question  is,  31ai/  this  cesthetical  idea  of  for- 
mal heauty  enter  into  so  solejnn  and  practical  a  toork  as  a 
sermon,  or  jjreaching  f     We  think  it  may,  because,  — 

(1.)  Our  affection  for  God  is  increased  by  the  setting  forth 
of  his  perfections  and  true  loveliness.  The  philosophical  ob- 
ject of  love,  even  of  the  highest  love,  is  beauty.  A  sermon 
about  God  has  for  one  of  its  aims,  to  bring  out  the  beauty 
of  the  divine  nature,  —  the  essential  beauty  of  God,  —  not 
in  its  relations  to  us,  but  as  it  is  in  itself,  in  its  own  ineffa- 
ble loveliness,  for  our  love  and  praise.  But  this  may  be 
considered  a  transcendental  reason ;  and,  more  practically, 
the  idea  of  beauty  may  enter  into  a  sermon,  because,  — 
(2.)  Beauty  renders  truth  more  attractive.    We  cannot  do 

•  Bib.  Sacra,  July,  1859,  p.  471. 


§    23.       TASTE   IN   PEEACHING.  259 

better  here  than  to  quote  a  passage  from  one  of  Schiller's 
essays  on  the  Limits  of  Taste.  "Certainly,  beauty  of  inves- 
titure can  promote  intellectual  convictions  just  as  little  as  the 
elegant  arrangement  of  a  repast  serves  to  satiate  the  guest, 
or  the  exterior  polish  of  a  man  to  decide  his  internal  worth. 
But  jUst  as,  on  the  other  hand,  the  fine  disposition  of  a 
table  entices  the  appetite,  and,  on  the  other,  a  recommen- 
datory exterior  generally  awakens  and  excites  attention  to 
the  man,  so  by  an  attractive  exhibition  of  truth  we  are 
favorably  inclined  to  open  our  soul  to  it;  and  the  hin- 
derances  in  our  disposition,  which  otherwise  would  have 
opposed  the  difficult  prosecution  of  a  long  and  rigorous 
chain  of  thought,  are  removed.  The  subject  never  gains 
by  beauty  of  form,  nor  is  the  understanding  assisted  in  its 
cognition  by  taste.  The  subject  must  recommend  itself 
directly  to  the  understanding  through  itself,  while  beauty 
of  form  addresses  the  imagination,  and  flatters  it  with  a 
show  of  freedom." 

The  last  expression  of  Schiller's  shows  one  true  use  of 
the  resthetical  principle  as  applied  to  oratory,  and  even  to 
sacred  oratory:  it  appeals  agreeably  and  powerfully  to 
the  imagination,  and  thus  makes  way  for  the  more  favor- 
able hearing  of  the  truth ;  and  even  this  advantage  is  not 
to  be  carelessly  neglected  by  the  preacher. 

(3.)  The .  aesthetical  element  has  a  place  in  the  ser- 
mon because  the  Scriptures  themselves  admit  of  it.  The 
Bible  is  full  of  the  esthetic  element ;  the  preaching  of  the 
prophets  was  a  lively  address  to  the  imagination,  by  the 
presentation  of  the  boldest  and  most  beautiful  symbolism ; 
the  preaching  of  the  apostle  Paul  abounds  in  appeals  to 
this  principle.  What  is  finer  than  his  figure  of  the  Roman 
armor,  carried  out  with  such  wonderful  beauty  of  detail, 
and  which  at  this  day  is  exquisitely  illustrated  by  the  bas- 
reliefs  of  Trajan's  Column  at  Rome  ?  The  introduction  to 
his  discourse  on  the  Areopagus  is  a  splendid  instance  of  the 
principle  of  adaptation,  which  is  one  of  the  qualities  of 


260  PREACHING. 

beauty.  Paul  had  also  a  fine  perception  of  the  ajsthetic 
quality  of  "propriety" — one  that  borders  closely  on  "adap- 
tation ; "  he  addressed  the  fit  word  to  every  audience ;  he 
made  use  of  Greek  literature  at  Athens ;  he  reasoned  from 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures  and  theology  at  Jerusalem,  and  in 
the  Jewish  synagogue  ;  he  appealed  to  Roman  law  and  opin- 
ions in  addressing  a  Roman  assembly. 

But  to  come  to  an  infinitely  higher  example — there  is  in 
the  words  and  discourses  of  our  Lord  that  sense  of  moral 
beauty,  which,  though  it  is  not  to  be  named  with  mere  intel- 
lectual beauty,  and  least  of  all  with  beauty  which  is  the 
object  of  perception  by  the  senses,  nevertheless  compre- 
hends the  truest  ideas  of  beauty  of  every  kind.  The  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  has  a  unity  which  is  a  foundation-quality 
of  the  beautiful.  As  the  deep  current  of  a  great  river  bears 
everything  along  with  it,  so  there  runs  through  this  dis- 
course one  formative  idea  of  the  "kingdom  of  God,"  as  that 
kingdom  descends  from  heaven  into  this  world,  and  shapes 
its  new  results  in  human  nature,  society,  responsibility,  and 
life  ;  and  the  development  of  this  idea  gives  to  the  sermon 
the  highest  beauty  of  form,  as  well  as  the  most  profound 
depth  of  meaning  —  an  objective  and  subjective  beauty. 
Everything,  indeed,  that  the  Saviour  said  had  a  beauty 
which  makes  it  attractive  and  immortal,  and  which  gives  it 
a  divine  significance,  regarded  simply  as  truth. 

There  is  also  to  be  observed  in  the  New  Testament,  and 
in  the  sayings  and  discourses  of  our  Lord,  a  frequent  use 
of  the  word  xulog  or  t6  xulbv  —  the  same  word  used  by  Plato 
and  the  Greek  writers  to  signify  "the  beautiful,"  as  distin- 
guished from  "the  true"  and  "the  good."  On  the  most 
beautiful  of  the  Etruscan  vases,  of  unknown  antiquity,  the 
word  Kulbv  is  written,  as  if  this  expressed  the  perfection  of 
the  beautiful  in  art.  We  know  that  xuXbg  bears  the  secon- 
dary moral  meaning  of  "good,"  "true,"  "excellent,"  "wor- 
thy," as  it  is  everywhere  translated  in  the  New  Testament ; 
but  does  it  always  entirely  lose  its  original  and  proper  idea 


§  23.      TASTE   IN   PEEACHING.  261 

of  "  beautiful "  ?  In  Matt.  26  :  10,  where  the  woman  anoints 
the  Saviour's  feet,  he  says,  "  Whi/  trouble  ye  the  woman  f 
for  she  hath  wrought  a  good  worh  ujpon  we"  (e^yo*'  yd^  v.alhv) . 
Was  not  this  a  beautiful  as  well  as  good  work  ?  Matt.  5:16, 
"  Let  your  light  so  shine  before  men  that  they  may  see  your 
good  iL'07'ks"  (id  y.aXa  egya) — " your  bcautiful  works,"  in 
which  the  lustrous  light  of  divine  truth  shines,  and  attracts 
men's  eyes  by  its  shining.  The  Lord  called  himself  o  notiiii)v 
xu).6;  —  "  the  good  shepherd  ;  "  but  why  not  "  the  beauti- 
ful shepherd"  —  one  in  whose  character,  nature,  and  work 
there  is  a  beautiful  fitness,  propriety,  worthiness,  to  be 
our  spiritual  shepherd?  A  Nestorian  convert  is  reported 
to  have  said  to  another  Nestorian,  "My  brother,  have  you 
yet  found  Christ  to  be  beautiful?"  —  as  if  he  had  said, 
"  Does  the  beauty  of  the  holiness  and  truth  that  are  iu  Jesus 
appear  to  you  so  clear  that  it  draws  out  your  affections, 
that  it  gives  you  sincere  delight  to  contemplate  it,  and  make 
it  jour  own ? "  Christ  is  the  harraonizer  of  the  world  of 
mind  and  matter ;  he  is  mediator  in  the  realms  of  truth  and 
reason,  as  well  as  of  faith;  and  by  removing  the  deformity 
of  sin  from  the  world,  he  makes  all  things  beautiful.     But, 

(4.)  The  principle  of  beauty  may  come  into  the  sermon 
because  there  is  an  absolute  idea  of  beauty  in  the  human 
mind.  This  rests  at  the  bottom  of  all  ideas  and  conceptions 
of  taste,  and  is  a  divinely  implanted  principle  of  our  nature. 
Plato  was  the  first  to  enunciate  this  truth,  that  the  idea  of 
beauty  was  in  the  mind,  and  that  its  perception  in  other 
objects  was  but  the  reflection  of  the  mind's  ideas  —  there 
being  no  real  beauty  in  matter  considered  by  itself.  This 
theory  Plato  develops  fully  in  The  Greater  Hippias  ;  and  all 
sesthetical  theories  which  are  worthy  of  being  named  since 
his  day  are  but  the  applications  and  varieties  of  this  Platonic 
assertion.  Thus  Diderot's  theory  was,  that  beauty  is  the 
application  of  the  principle  of  relation  in  the  mind ;  that 
where  the  mind  perceives  certain  true  relations  in  objects, 
the  sentiment  of  beauty  is  awakened. 


3!3i  PREACHING. 

Sir  Joshua  Reynolds'  theory  also  reduces  beauty  to  the 
principle  of  just  proj)ortion,  or  moderation,  which  exists  in 
the  mind.  Alison  refers  all  the  principles  of  beauty  to  the 
mental  law  of  association;  it  is  the  waking  up  of  agreeable 
trains  of  association  by  the  beautiful  object ;  for  example, 
a  quiet  landscape  leads  the  mind  to  pleasing  thoughts  of 
comfort,  of  the  blessings  of  peace,  and  of  innocent,  uncor- 
rupted  human  enjoyment.  We  do  not  mean  to  say,  by  this 
absolute  idea  of  beauty  existing  in  the  mind,  that  there  is 
a  distinct  aesthetic  faculty  or  power  in  the  mind,  else  there 
could  not  be  such  innumerable  varieties  of  taste  among  dif- 
ferent  people  ;  but  what  we  mean  is,  that  there  is  in  every 
mind,  even  the  most  uncultivated  (and,  of  course,  incom- 
parably more  in  the  cultivated),  a  certain  idea  or  perception 
of  beauty,  which,  when  it  is  realized,  produces  pleasure. 
The  rudest  sailor  takes  pleasure  in  the  beautiful  proportions 
of  a  fine  vessel.  Now,  if  the  intuitive  perception  of  beauty 
had  not  first  existed  in  the  mind,  how  could  it  have  been 
cultivated  even  in  this  one  respect?  The  source  of  the 
beautiful,  whether  it  is  simple  or  complex,  whether  made 
up  of  a  single,  or  of  many,  elements,  exists  in  the  mind 
itself;  real  beauty  is  the  reflection  of  inward  ideas  and  sen- 
sations called  forth  by  outward  objects.  Of  course  this 
sense  of  beauty  sprang  from  the  mind's  Original,  and 
who  is  Plimself  the  ri  xuXuv,  as  he  is  the  to  dtyuOdf  ;  for,  as 
a  modern  writer  says,  "The  summit  of  the  beautiful  is 
the  true."  All  the  works  of  God  would  appear  beautiful, 
were  we  placed  in  the  position  of  God,  and  could  clearly 
see  those  principles  of  order,  harmony,  proportion,  fit- 
ness, unity  —  that  beautiful  plan — upon  which  all  is  made. 
These  hidden  principles  of  beauty  which  God  has  impressed 
upon  nature  objectively,  and  subjectively  upon  the  human 
mind,  are  for  us  to  study,  as  far  as  they  can  be  discovered. 
It  is  thought  that  a  true  advance  has  been  made,  especially 
by  German  writers  on  aesthetics,  upon  the  Platonic  idea,  in 
this  respect  —  that  the  objective  should  be  joined  to  the 


§  23.      TASTE   IN   PREACHING.  263 

subjective,  the  real  to  the  ideal,  for  the  production  of  beauty  ; 
that  though  beauty  does  not  reside  in  the  object  itself,  but 
rather  iu  the  idea  of  the  mind  that  perceives  ;Jt,  yet  that 
this  idea  would  not  be  sufficient  to  produce  beauty,  unless 
it  formed  itself  upon,  or  discovered  itself  in,  or  expressed 
itself  through,  some  real  form.  It  must  come  out  of  its 
subjectivity  to  produce  real  beaut}^  as  God  himself  did  in 
Christ,  iu  order  to  produce  a  beautiful  life ;  it  must  take  a 
form  that  corresponds  to  this  idea  in  the  ipaind,  and,  above 
all,  in  the  divine  mind.  Beaut]/,  therefore,  to  he  jperfect, 
requires  form  as  well  as  conception ;  and  there  is  the  beauti- 
ful form  in  which  every  idea,  or  every  pure  truth,  manifests 
itself.  It  does  not  manifest  itself  with  the  highest  degree 
of  perfection,  unless  it  takes  that  particular  form.  There 
is,  then,  the  fit,  the  beautiful  form,  awaiting  every  true  idea  ; 
and  it  is  the  business  of  the  artist,  or  creator,  to  discover 
this.  So  far,  then,  as  the  orator  or  the  preacher  is  an 
artist,  this  is  his  business  —  to  discover  the  fit  and  beautiful 
form  of  his  conception  of  truth,  or  of  any  given  truth ;  and 
this  is  right,  because  it  is  God's  own  way  of  working.  Some 
rhetorical  writers  have  expressed  themselves  clearly  on  this 
point.  "  Oratory  must  therefore,  of  necessity,  express  beauty, 
in  order  to  its  perfection.  This  cannot  be  said  of  the  product 
of  any  mechanical  art."  ^  "  Taste  is  nothing  but  the  selec- 
tion of  the  befitting  and  the  adapted,  guided  by  ethical 
ideas.  Its  proper  home,  therefore,  is  within  the  sphere 
of  eloquence.  But  eloquence,  in  respect  to  taste,  must 
always  difier  from  poetry,  in  that,  iu  the  case  of  eloquence, 
the  selection  of  the  befitting  and  adapted  is  accompanied 
with  the  desigji  of  exciting  afl'ection  ;  while  taste  in  the 
poet,  on  the  contrary,  is  a  quality  that  works  without  any 
design  in  view,  except  the  mere  production  of  beauty."^ 

If,  therefore,  the  principle  of  beauty  enters  into  the  higl^- 
est  affection  toward  God,  if  it  serves  to  render  truth  more 

'  Day's  Khetoric,  p.  21.  *  Theremin's  Essay,  p.  132. 


264  PREACHING. 

attractive,  if  it  is  found' in  the  Scriptures,  and  if  it  exists 
absolutely  in  the  human  mind,  and,  therefore,  of  course, 
primarily  iii  the  divine  mind,  it  is  a  proper  object  (in  its 
place)  of  attention  and  study  to  the  preacher  of  divine 
truth. 

We  have  said  that  the  principle  of  beauty  could  not  be 
considered  as  forming  by  itself  a  separate  faculty  or  depart- 
ment of  the  mind,  but  that  rather  it  seems  to  depend  upon, 
or  to  be  the  con#)ined  result  of,  certain  intuitive  tastes,  per- 
ceptions, laws,  or  principles  of  the  mind,  which  are  fitted 
to  be  called  into  exercise  by  whatever  corresponds  to  them 
in  outer  objects,  by  whatever  is  calculated  to  draw  them 
out,  or  give  them  expression.  Still  there  is  one  faculty  of 
the  mind  which  does  peculiarly  preside  over  the  whole  field 
of  the  oesthetical,  and  that  is,  the  imagination ^  whose  use 
and  place  in  preaching  no  one  will  deny. 

The  imagination,  according  to  Coleridge,  is  "  that  power 
of  the  finite  mind  which  (^as  far  as  possible)  corresponds 
to  the  creative  power  in  the  infinite  mind,  and  which  strug- 
gles to  idealize  and  unify  all  objects  of  perception.''^ 

This  noble  faculty,  which  idealizes  and  perfects,  which 
combines  many  perceptions  into  one  new  and  living  whole, 
enters  largely  into  all  the  jesthetic  arts,  and  cannot  be  disre- 
garded by  the  preacher,  any  more  than  by  the  poet  or  painter. 
That  is  what  gives  one  preacher's  sermon  a  freshness,  origi- 
nality, and  beauty  of  form,  which  another  preacher's  ser- 
mon, of  equal  force  of  thought,  entirely  lacks.  It  is  this 
that,  more  than  anything  else  (rhetorically  speaking) ,  takes 
tt  sermon  out  of  the  commonplace,  and  makes  it  individual. 
It  makes  a  new  mental  creation,  though  it  may  add  nothing 
to  the  actual  stock  of  knowledge  which  existed  before.  But 
it  casts  ideas  into  new  forms  —  more  beautiful  and  powerful 
forms. 

The  preacher's  imagination  should  be  shown  in  this  renew- 
ing power  which  is  infused  into  all  his  productions,  rather 
than  in  any  peculiar  use  of  startling  metaphors,  or  of  brilliant 


§  23.       TASTE   IN   PREACHING.  265 

flights  of  fancy ;  but  the  greatest  preachers  since  the  apostle 
Paul's  day  have  been  distinguished  for  the  presence  of  the 
imaginative  faculty  in  a  marked  degree.  Ohrysostom''s  im- 
agination led  him  into  the  living  iields  of  illustration,  and 
his  illustrations  are  as  homely  and  vivid  as  when  they  were 
first  spoken  to  the  great  congregations  in  Antioch  and  By- 
zantium. Augustine's  imagination  was  an  inward  fire,  that 
lighted  up  spiritual  realms  with  a  glow  like  that  of  his 
own  African  landscape.  Luther's  imagination  made  unseen 
things  real  —  more  real  than  the  things  of  sight.  Jeremy 
Taylor's  imagination  was  truly  imperial ;  and  one  cannot 
open  his  pages  without  coming  into  the  presence  of  new 
and  resplendent  forms  of  a  fresh,  opulent  creation ;  of  a 
superabundance,  indeed,  of  imagery,  but  so  genuine,  and 
the  healthy  product  of  such  sound  and  substantial  thought, 
that  it  resembles  beautiful  clusters  of  grapes,  which  we  feed 
upon  while  we  enjoy  the  beauty  that  is  so  varied  and  rich 
a  growth  of  generous  nature.  John  Howe's  imagination 
entered  into  his  most  abstruse  speculations,  and  now  and 
then,  as  in  his  Living  Temple,  led  him  into  noble  and  ex- 
tended imagery.  Robert  Hall's  imagination  sustained  him 
through  the  most  elevated  reasoning  upon  moral  themes. 
Edward  Irving,  who,  with  all  his  errors,  was  a  great  preacher, 
had  an  imagination  at  times  Miltonic,  and  it  was  so  regarded 
by  his  friend  Coleridge.  Whitefield's  imagination  was  ex- 
tremely vivid,  inflaming  his  whole  language,  and  making  it 
blaze  with  a  meaning  and  fire  which  now  seem  dull,  com- 
pared to  the  moment  of  delivery.  Among  our  own  great 
preachers,  Jonathan  Edwards  manifested  this  faculty  in  a 
more  undemonstrative  and  hidden  way,  not  so  much  in  his 
forms  of  language  as  in  the  power  of  pure  speculation,  of 
projecting  or  creating  for  himself  an  ideal  world  of  theor3^ 
John  Mason,  too,  was  not  wanting  in  this  power  which  ani- 
mated his  reasoning  faculties.  Lyman  Beecher  had  a  vigor- 
ous imagination,  which  made  his  method  of  speaking  and 
argument  quite  original,  and  his  preaching  "logic  on  fire." 
23 


266  PKEACHING. 

There  has  been,  heretofore,  it  may  be,  a  too  great  curbing 
of  the  imagination  in  our  New  England  style  of  preaching, 
and  thus  a  loss  of  power ;  for  the  imagination  is  the  main- 
spring of  invention  in  the  orator  or  writer ;  and  when  the 
imagination  is  once  fired,  all  the  other  faculties  of  the  mind 
are  set  in  motion.  But  we  would  speak  of  the  imagina- 
tion in  this  connection  particularly,  because  it  enables  the 
preacher  to  produce  the  first  and  perhaps  greatest  result 
of  the  working  of  the  sesthetical  principle  in  a  sermon, 
viz.,  unity  of  form.  We  would  mention  this,  then,  as  the 
first  essential  principle  of  taste,  viewed  in  relation  to  a 
discourse. 

(1.)  Unity  of  form.  It  is  thought  that  Augustine,  in 
his  Treatise  on  Beauty,  which  has  been  lost,  made  "the 
beauty  of  all  objects  to  depend  on  their  unity,  or  on  the 
perception  of  the  principle  or  design  which  fixed  the  rela- 
tions of  the  various  parts,  and  presented  them  to  the  intel- 
lect or  imagination  as  one  harmonious  whole."  ^  Although 
this  is  a  partial  theory,  yet  it  recognizes  the  chief  property 
of  every  beautiful  object  of  nature  and  true  work  of  art.  A 
range  of  mountains,  an  oak  tree,  the  group  of  the  Laocoon, 
the  Transfiguration  by  Raphael,  the  interior  of  the  Milan 
Cathedral,  though  each  composed  of  many,  even  myriad, 
parts,  yet  make  but  one  impression ;  they  give  the  idea  of 
one  creative  mind  by  which  they  were  formed.  In  the  great- 
est poems,  also,  how  extremely  simple  is  the  creative  fiat 
which  runs  through  them,  and  organizes  their  numberless 
details  into  one  grand  whole,  as  in  the  Iliad,  the  Prome- 
theus Vinctus,  and  the  Paradise  Lost  I  A  child  could  tell 
the  story  of  each  almost  in  a  breath. 

This  unifying  power  in  these  great  works,  and  in  all  true 
works  of  art,  is  doubtless  that  of  the  imagination,  as  Cole- 
ridge defines  it. 

In  works  of  thought  and  reflection,  as  in  a  sermon,  the 
imagination  seeks  after  complete  representations  of  truth; 

'  Encyclop.  Brit.,  Beauty. 


§  23.      TASTE   IN   PREACHING.  2§3 

even  as  Schiller  defines  the  object  of  true  literary  composi- 
tion to  be  "  to  exhibit  the  universal  in  the  particular."  The 
orator  or  preacher  should  strive,  through  the  force  of  his 
own  miud,  to  give  wholeness  of  form  to  the  subject,  causing 
it  to  stand  out  like  a  finished  statue,  apart  from  all  others, 
■with  nothing  to  be  added,  and  nothing  to  be  taken  away. 
But  it  is  only  when  the  creative  imagination  has  brooded 
over  a  subject,  has  vitalized  it  with  its  own  free  spirit,  and 
has  wrought  it  together  in  the  heart  of  its  thought,  that  this 
beautiful  result  is  produced.  This  was  the  power  of  D7\ 
Chalmers.  Plis  imagination,  which  was  his  prime  intel- 
lectual faculty  as  a  preacher,  was  usually  employed  in  devel- 
oping, enhancing,  and  amplifying  one  idea,  one  truth  of  the 
divine  word,  so  that  it  stood  out  at  last  in  its  majestic  pro- 
portions to  attract  by  its  beauty  or  to  overpower  by  its 
magnitude.  His  sermons  are  deep  practical  contempla- 
tions of  truth  flowing  out  from  one  central  thought  that 
opens  into  the  divine  word  itself;  they  spread  out  and 
spread  out,  till  each  becomes,  as  it  were,  a  lake,  or  a  sea,  on 
which  the  hearers'  minds  are  lighted  up  and  borne  onward. 
This  vital  unity  of  form,  and  fresh  original  completeness, 
are  particularly  seen  in  the  sermons  of  the  late  F.  W.  Rob- 
ertson. They  attract  by  their  inherent  nobleness.  In  Dr. 
Bushnell's  sermons  we  see  an  exhibition  of  this  same  clear, 
bold  bodying  forth  of  thought,  this  plastic  power  of  the 
imagination,  which  the  dry  scientific  intellect  cannot  reach. 
Will  not  an  audience  be  impressed  by  the  shortest  living 
sermon  of  this  kind  more  than  by  the  most  elaborate  and 
dull  scientific  treatise  that  was  ever  preached?  There  must 
be  thought,  but  it  must  be  thought  in  a  living  form.  No 
one  wishes  to  see  truth  dissected,  but  truth  alive.  No  one 
cares  to  see  the  disjecta  membra  of  Osiris,  but  the  living 
divinity.  In  Sydney  Smith's  witty  words,  "Is  it  a  rule  of  . 
oratory  to  handle  the  most  sublime  truths  in  the  driest  (and 
most  technical)  manner  ?  Is  sin  to  be  taken  from  men  as 
Eve  was  from  Adam  —  by  casting  them  into  a  deep  sleep  ?  " 


268  PREACHING. 

Another  principal  characteristic  of  the  sesthetical  element 
in  preaching  is,  — 

(2.)  Grace  of  movement,  "  Grace  "  is  from  gratus,  free,  or 
that  which  agrees  with  willingly,  which  is  congruous,  which 
moves  in  harmony.  It  consists  of  an  harmonious  arrange- 
ment of  parts,  so  that  all  move  easily.  It  is  what  Schiller 
calls  "the  play  movement,"  as  contrasted  with  the  move- 
ment by  rule.  This  unconstrained  movement  of  the  mind 
should  run  through  the  sermon.  All  traces  of  work  and 
painful  labor  should  be  taken  out  of  it.  All  stiff  and 
unnatural  juxtapositions  of  ideas  or  sentiments  should  be 
removed.  The  thought  should  flow  freely,  even  if  not 
rapidly.  The  audience,  though  aroused  to  active  thought, 
should  not  be  called  upon  to  think  tfte  subject  out  de  origine, 
laboriously,  with  the  speaker.  He  should  give  them  the 
results  rather  than  the  processes  of  his  thought.  There  may 
be  a  world  of  hard  labor  bestowed  upon  the  sermon  —  the 
more  the  better  ;  but  this  should  not  be  displayed.  The  sweat 
of  toil  should  be  wiped  from  it.  A  free,  animated,  and  even 
joyous  movement  should  appear  through  it  all.  It  may  be 
solemn,  but  should  not  be  heavy.  All  men  love  to  be  lured 
into  this  sense  of  perfect  freedom  in  a  discourse  —  to  believe 
that  all  is  natural  and  unforced.  Even  if  they  must  per- 
ceive that  a  sermon  is  the  fruit  of  great  previous  study,  yet 
for  the  moment  they  would  believe  that  it  is  the  spontane- 
ous outpouring  of  the  speaker's  own  soul.  The  preacher 
should  strive  to  be  an  unbound  man,  not  one  forced  to  think 
and  speak  what  another  man  thinks  and  speaks  ;  but  all  men 
should  see  that  he  is  himself,  that  his  thoughts  are  free,  and 
spoken  because  they  are  his  own.  Then  he  will  be  grace- 
ful. Freedom  is  necessary  to  grace.  The  intellect  creates 
method  ;  the  imagination,  unity  ;  but  the  heart,  grace.  Grace 
comes  from  inward  sympathy.  Grace,  looked  at  in  this 
sense,  is  not  a  weak  quality  in  a  speaker ;  it  is  nothing  less 
than  power  moving  freely.  Grace  springs  from  that  aroused 
and  joyful  energy  of  the  mind  which  is  one  of  its  deepest 


§  23.       TASTE    IN   PREACHING.  2G9 

sources  of  power.  When  a  speaker  moves  with  this  free 
and  graceful  energy,  he  carries  his  audience  with  him. 
We  will  mention  but  one  other  quality  of  good  taste  in 
preaching :  — 

(3.)  P7'opriety  of  thougJit  and  expression.  We  mean  here 
a  proper  form,  rather  than  substance,  of  thought.  Propri- 
ety has  been  defined  to  be  "  a  fine  and  true  conformity  to 
all  relations  which  may  surround  an  object."  These  may 
be  relations  of  truth,  time,  place,  circumstance,  or  whatso- 
ever is  befitting  the  right  treatment  of  the  particular  theme 
in  hand.  This  quality  of  beauty  would  lead  the  preacher 
to  fall  into  no  error,  (a.)  in  the  choice  of  his  subject; 
(&.)  in  the  fitness  of  his  arguments;  (c.)  in  the  perception 
of  the  true  character  of- the  occasion;  {d.)  in  the  adapta- 
tions of  thought  and  illustration  to  the  intellectual  and  spirit- 
ual state  of  his  audience.  All  truth  is  good,  but  one  truth 
is  fitter  than  another  at  a  certain  time.  In  the  treatment 
of  certain  subjects  there  are  sets  of  ideas  congruous  and 
totally  incongruous  to  those  subjects.  In  the  treatment  of 
texts,  this  principle  of  "  propriety  "  is  peculiarly  needed  ;  a 
text  which  breathes  the  hope  and  joy  of  the  gospel  should 
not  be  made  a  sledge-hammer  to  crush  the  mind  with  the 
terrors  of  the  law.  The  fine  cultivation  of  this  eesthetical 
principle  of  "propriety"  is  to  be  particularly  seen  in  a 
preacher's  illustrations,  and  in  the  moderation  and  control 
of  the  wayward  and  violent  imagination. 

AVe  might  speak  of  many  other  important  sesthetical  prin- 
ciples which  enter  into  oratory,  and  even  sacred  oratory, 
such  as  proportion,  disposition,  neatness,  correctness,  color, 
tone,  light  and  shade,  novelty,  variety,  sublimity,  expression, 
and,  above  all,  truth;  but  we  cannot  here  go  farther  into 
this  subject.  Many  of  the  principles  of  good  taste  in  writ- 
ing and  speaking  will  necessarily  be  noticed  when  we  treat 
more  particularly  of  Style. 

The  best  way  to  cultivate  the  aesthetic  sense,  or  good 
taste,  is  by  a  constant  study  of  nature.  Goethe  says  that 
23* 


270  PREACHING. 

all  any  artist  has  to  do  is  to  study  and  imitate  nature ;  and 
though  this  remark  liiay  be  too  sweeping, — for  nature  itself 
is,  in  some  sense,  imperfect,  and  matter  could  not  manifest 
to  us  the  perfect  idea  of  God, — yet  from  nature  we  draw 
those  elementary  principles  of  art  which  the  human  mind, 
made  by  God,  is  capable  of  improving  upon,  from  the 
higher  ideal  within.  Dr.  Chalmers  was  a  genuine  lover  of 
natural  scenery;  and  the  influence  of  the  Scottish  moun- 
tains and  lakes,  which  were  familiar  to  him,  and  revisited  by 
him  on  every  possible  occasion,  is  perceptible  in  the  noble- 
ness, and,  sometimes,  sublimity,  of  his  style. ^  Calvin,  on 
the  contrary,  seems  to  have  caught  little  or  nothing  from  the 
influence  of  the  grander  scenery  about  his  home.  The  care- 
ful study  of  one  or  more  of  the  fine  arts,  such  as  painting 
or  architecture,  especially  the  last,  which  is  an  accurate  and 
scientific  art,  is  also  highly  improving  to  the  aesthetic  sense. 
*^  Etenim  omnes  artes,  quad  ad  humanitatem  pertinent,  hahent 
quoddam  commune  vinculum,  et  quasi  cognitione  quadam 
inter  se  continentur ."  ^  A  study  of  the  best  poets  develops' 
and  cultivates  the  aesthetic  quality  of  the  mind.  Above  all, 
let  the  heart  be  pure  and  joyful,  and  it  will  see  beauty  in 
all  things.  Ruskin  says,  "The  sensation  of  beauty  (that  is, 
the  highest  beauty)  is  dependent  on  a  pure,  right,  and  open 
state  of  the  heart."  There  is  everlasting  beauty  in  the  works 
of  God.  In  the  meditation  of  his  word  and  works  we  best 
reach  the  source  of  the  beautiful.  Do  we  not  feel  that  in 
the  perfect  life  of  God,  to  which,  if  we  are  good,  we  tend, 
all  that  is  incongruous  and  earthly,  all  that  is  not  truly 
beautiful,  will  vanish  away? 

'  Hanna's  Life  of  Chalmers,  vol.  iv.,  p.  450. 
*  Cicero,  Pro  Archia,  I.,  2. 


§  24.      INVENTION.  271 

SECOND  DIVISION. 

INVENTION    AND    STYLE. 

§  24.     Invention. 

Invention  may  be  defiued  to  be  tJie  art  of  supjilying  and 
methodizing  the  subject-matter  of  a  discourse. 

Its  primary  idea  is,  to  discover,  bring  together,  or  supply 
the  requisite  material  of  thought,  from  whatever  source ; 
its  subordinate  idea,  and  one  legitimately  connected  with  it 
as  far  as  the  proper  uses  of  rhetoric  are  concerned,  is  the 
right  methodizing  or  arrangement  of  this  material. 

We  will  consider,  briefly,  the  sources  of  invention,  and 
the  qualities  of  the  true  subject. 

I.    The  sources  of  invention. 

(a.)  Original  poiver  of  thought.  This  belongs  to  the 
mind,  as  mind  ;  but  it  may  be  indefinitely  increased  through 
discipline  and  culture,  since  the  more  this  original  faculty 
of  thougJit  is  trained,  the  stronger  and  richer  it  grows  in 
invention,  the  greater  its  command  of  the  sources  and  ma- 
terials of  thought.  There  are,  it  is  true,  vast  dififerences  in 
native  mental  power  and  fertility,  in  the  primitive  depth 
of  the  mental  soil ;  but  where  there  is  native  power  of 
thought,  a  thorough  and  philosophical  education  serves  to 
develop  it,  that  it  may  bear  more  fruit  of  invention.  Yinet 
says  (Horailetics,  p.  53),  "But  the  most  certain  means  of 
invention,  as  to  the  subject  of  discourse,  is  a  truly  philo- 
sophical culture."^  In  sermon-writing  the  well-disciplined 
mind,  the  mind  trained  to  think,  has  a  confident  vigor  in 
discovering  and  handling  a  subject  which  the  untrained 
mind  cannot  have.  A  thoughtful  mind,  well  disciplined, 
will  be  continually  quarrying  out  for   itself  new  subject- 

'  See  also  Quintilian's  Inst.,  c.  xix. 


272  PREACHING. 

matter,  since  thought  itself  is,  after  all,  the  main  princi- 
ple and  source  of  good  writing. 

(5.)  Acquired  'knowledge.  Out  of  nothing,  nothing  can 
be  invented.  There  must  first  be  the  material  for  thought 
to  work  upon,  and  from  which  to  draw  forth  the  subject- 
matter  of  discourse  before  the  writer  or  orator  has  any 
function.  That  material  is  truth,  as  it  lies  in  its  elemental 
conditions  in  nature  and  the  moral  universe,  rewarding 
the  sincere  seeker,  but  eluding  the  final  analysis.  No 
one  but  God  can  create  simple  or  original  truth ;  yet  man 
may  lay  hold  of  truth  and  use  the  truth  while  he  cannot 
circumscribe  or  exhaust  it.  The  broader  the  dominion  of 
truth  which  the  orator  thus  commands,  the  more  of  it  he 
has  actually  made  his  own,  the  richer  his  sources  of  inven- 
tion, and  the  wider  his  power  and  influence.^ 

We  do  not  like  to  see  barrenness  in  any  writer,  but  in  writ- 
ing a  sermon  especially  one  should  draw  upon  a  full  mind  ; 
he  should  be  able  to  look  down  upon  a  subject  in  all  its 
parts  and  relations,  and  should  feel  that  his  great  embar- 
rassment consists  in  coming  at  the  specific  theme  of  dis- 
course, in  defining,  selecting,  and  arranging  his  material, 
rather  than  in  being,  obliged  to  gather  together  matter 
enough  to  eke  out  a  discourse.  It  is  better  not  to  attempt 
to  write  upon  a  subject  than  to  write  with  a  small  and  im- 
perfect knowledge  of  it,  which  sometimes  one  may  be  forced 
to  do,  although  this  is  not  the  way  to  nourish  a  rich  inven- 
tion. And  this  acquired  knowledge,  that  is  to  be  employed 
in  invention,  is  not  the  gathering  together  of  a  crude,  undi- 
gested mass  of  knowledge ;  but  it  requires  an  act  of  the 
mind  to  possess  itself  of  this  knowledge,  to  assimilate  truth 
to  the  nourishment  of  the  thinking  power,  to  make  it  fit  for 
use.  This  requires  reflection — that  profound  meditation 
upon  divine  truth,  without  which  there  can  be  no  rich,  ori- 
ginal preaching.    It  is  not  merely  the  preaching  of  truth, 

'  Quintilian's  Inst.,  c.  xxi. 


§  24.      INVENTION.  273 

but  our  own  personal  perception  or  apprehension  of  truth, 
the  ripe  fruitage  of  our  own  patient  thinking  upon  truth, 
that  is  needed. 

The  great  source  of  the  preacher's  acquired  knowledge  is 
the  icord  of  God;  and  he  who  studies  this  word  daily,  who 
digs  in  this  field,  who  is  constantly  pursuing  original  inves- 
tigations in  this  still  fresh  and  fruitful  soil,  will  never  be  at 
a  loss  for  subjects  of  sermons.  It  is  well  that  there  is 
beginning  to  be  a  call  for  biblical  preaching;  this  will  im- 
mensely increase  the  variety  of  the  material  of  preaching 
and  the  supply  of  the  inventive  faculty.  The  last  review, 
the  last  new  work  on  theology,  the  last  published  volume 
of  essays  or  sermons,  while  suggestive,  cannot  ajfford  preach- 
ers their  source  of  supply  ;  for  all  such  materials  are  adven- 
titious ;  they  are  not  the  spring,  .but  only  a  reservoir  whose 
waters  soon  dry  up.  The  older  Puritan  preachers  dwelt 
continually  in  the  word  and  spirit  of  God,  and  thus  they 
were  fresh  and  original,  sometimes  startlingly  bold,  but 
profound  in  a  spiritual  sense,  even  if  labored  and  incorrect 
in  form.  They  preached,  it  is  true,  scholasticall}' ;  but  in 
substance  and  spirit  they  drew  their  main  material  from 
the  Scriptures.  There  is  an  evangelic  life  in  what  they 
say,  which  must  have  seemed,  at  the  time,  like  a  direct 
prophecy,  or  a  speaking  of  God's  spirit  through  their  minds 
to  men. 

(c.)  The  ^process  of  analysis  and  i^easoning.  As  medita- 
tion upon  truth  arouses  the  inventive  fiiculty,  the  more 
logical  power  of  definition,  analysis,  and  comparison,  grad- 
ually leads  invention  to  settle  down  upon  some  definite 
result  of  thought,  some  distinct  and  comprehensive  subject ; 
it  conducts  to  the  apprehension  of  those  elements  or  prin- 
ciples of  truth  which  lie  behind  all  knowledge.  Many 
preachers'  minds  are  sufficiently  fertile  in  subjects  for  ser- 
mons, but,  lacking  the  habit  of  philosophic  thinking,  the  cul- 
tivated analytic  power,  they  fail  to  look  the  subject  through, 
or  to  come  at  the  real  subject,  at  all.     They  are  thus  led 


274  PREACHING. 

also  to  superficiality  in  the  treatment  of  subjects,  and  are 
rich  only  in  the  mere  discovery  of  novel  themes. 

II.   The  qualities  of  the  true  subject. 

(a.)  It  should  possess  unity  of  subject  and  object.  We 
have  spoken  already  of  unity  of  form  in  an  aesthetic  point 
of  view ;  but  the  very  matter  and  essence  of  a  discourse 
should  be  one.  This  forms  its  life ;  and  a  discourse  can 
have,  like  a  man,  but  one  life,  not  two  or  more.  We  natu- 
rally say,  "  The  subject  of  this  discourse  is  so  and  so."  If 
we  should  say,  "  The  subjects  of  this  discourse  are  so  and 
so,"  would  our  hearers  expect  to  be  persuaded  or  impelled 
to  any  particular  duty?  A  sermon,  above  all,  should  have 
but  one  foundation  theme,  though  capable,  it  may  be,  of 
many  different  aspects  and  divisions  ;  for  a  sermon  is  not  a 
mere  work  of  art ;  it  is  infinitely  more  :  it  is  a  practical  work 
directed  to  a  moral  end,  calculated  to  act  impressively  upon 
the  will  and  affections  of  the  hearer;  it  should  have,  there- 
fore, but  one  subject,  and  should  aim  at  one  impression,  or 
it  loses  its  moral  power. 

The  sermon  may  sometimes  treat  of  complex  truths ;  but 
these  should  be  comprehended  in  some  broader  truth,  and 
all  the  thoughts  should  be  bound  together  into  one  syn- 
thetic whole.  The  discourse  delivered  by  the  preacher  has 
something  to  accomplish  ;  it  is  directed  to  a  certain  end  ;  it 
is  to  carry  a  certain  point ;  it  has  an  earnest  mission  ;  it 
does  not  talk  about  truth,  but  it  preaches  the  truth  which 
is  fitted  to  convert  men's  souls ;  therefore  there  should  be 
not  only  unity  of  subject  —  unity  in  the  very  substance  of 
the  thought, — but  unity  of  object,  unity  of  aim.  There 
may  be  a  wide  subject,  but  there  should  be  a  narrower 
object  toward  which  it  is  directed  and  is  made  to  converge. 
According  to  Vinet,  in  order  to  have  unity  in  a  sermon,  it 
must  be  reducible  to  a  doctrinal  proposition,  which  is  readi- 
ly transformed  into  a  practical  proposition ;  and  every  ser- 
mon, even  an  expository  one,  should  partake  more  or  less 


§  24.      INVENTION.  275 

of  this  unity  of  subject  and  object,  this  oneness  of  sub- 
tance  and  aim.  It  is  true  that  the  sermons  of  Augustine, 
and  of  the  early  fathers  of  the  church,  seem  to  go  upon  the 
principle  of  imparting  as  much  truth  as  possible  at  the  time, 
without  any  marked  attempt  at  unity,  and  this  was  better 
suited  to  an  earlier  and  less  exactly  thoughtful  age  ;  but, 
as  a  general  principle,  at  all  times  and  under  all  circum- 
stances, the  laws  of  the  mind  teach  us  that  we  cannot,  in 
speaking  for  the  purpose  of  persuasion,  attain  to  any  object, 
or  accomplish  any  definite  end,  unless  we  keep  that  object 
in  view  and  steadily  pursue  it.  We  should  not  only,  there- 
fore, have  a  theme,  but  we  should  clearly  apprehend  it  in  all 
its  bearings,  so  that  while  following  it  out,  while  discussing 
subordinate  and  related  subjects,  while  pursuing  definite 
and  individual  methods  of  treatment,  we  should  not  for- 
get either  the  one  main  subject  or  the  one  main  object  of 
our  discourse ;  and  these  two,  in  a  certain  sense,  should 
be  one. 

(b.)  It  should  be  one's  own.  The  term  "invention" 
presupposes  this :  for  to  invent,  one  must,  in  a  sense, 
originate.  Whatever  one  produces  should  be  the  genuine 
product  of  his  own  thinking  —  not  that  he  may  not  receive 
help  from  other  sources,  but  his  intellectual  products  should 
be  the  honest  fruit  of  his  own  brain.  This  is  the  happiness 
and  reward  of  literary  labor,  and  it  loses  its  stimulus  and 
pleasurable  excitement  where  there  is  not  this  conscious- 
ness of  independent,  and,  in  a  true  sense,  original  invention  ; 
and  if  this  is  true  of  any  species  of  literary  composition  or 
public  discourse,  it  is  true  of  the  sermon.  Let  us  ask  in 
what  icai/  true  originality  is  violated.  We  would  say  neg- 
atively—  not  in  using  old  truths ;  for  no  one  can  make  a 
new  truth.  Even  the  discovery  of  a  new  truth  seems  to  be 
reserved  for  the  few  minds  on  which  epochs  turn,  though, 
indeed,  there  is  no  monopoly  here.  The  truths  of  the  Bible, 
above  all  other  truths,  are  common  property  to  all  preachers 
and  men.    Again,  not  in  using  old  arguments  or  j^roofs.    The 


276  PREACHING. 

old  arguments  are  generally  the  best ;  they  are  the  results  of 
the  best  thinking  of  the  best  minds ;  they  have  become  the 
property  of  all.  The  interests  of  truth  itself  demand  that 
it  should  not  lose  the  support  of  the  best  arguments,  the 
old  and  well-tried  proofs,  and  lean  upon  weaker  proofs 
merely  because  they  are  new.  Yet  again,  not  in  tahing 
subjects  that  have  been  preached  upon  by  others.  One  should 
not  be  fastidious  in  this.  The  most  important  subjects 
will  be  those  most  preached  upon.  And  there  are  cer- 
tain subjects,  which  not  to  preach  upon  would  be  a  clear 
failure  of  duty ;  and,  obviously,  no  one  has  an  exclusive 
right  of  property  in  the  truths  and  subjects  of  the  Bible. 
There  are  some  peculiarly  original  forms  in  which  even 
homiletical  subjects  have  been  stated,  which  it  would  be 
absurd  and  wrong  for  a  preacher  to  repeat,  inasmuch  as 
they  are  not  his  own.  Thus  Dr.  Bushuell's  sermon  upon 
"  Every  man's  life  a  plan  of  God,"  upon  the  text  in  Isaiah 
45:  5,  "/  Jiave  girded  thee,  though  thou  hast  not  hnoivn 
we,"  is  stamped,  in  the  very  subject  of  it,  with  an  original 
ownership. 

True  originality  of  invention  may  be  violated,  positively, 
by  employing  the  thoughts,  words,  and  method  of  another, 
without,  in  some  icay,  giving  due  credit  for  it.  The  viola- 
tion consists  not  in  using  another's  thoughts,  or  those  which 
bear  the  unmistakable  stamp  of  ownership,  but  in  not  can- 
didly acknowledging  their  source.  One  must  use  the  re- 
sult of  others'  thinking  to  a  certain  extent,  for  he  cannot 
think  all  things  de  origine,  and  he  is  the  heir  of  ages  of 
thought ;  he  may  sometimes  even  unconsciously  emplo}^ 
ideas  and  trains  of  thought  which  belong  peculiarly  to 
another  mind,  whose  source  he  has  forgotten,  and  which  he 
uses  unwittingly  as  his  own;  there  may  be  striking  coinci- 
dences in  his  own  thinking  and  that  of  another  man's ;  but 
consciously  to  set  forth  as  his  o.wn  the  thoughts,  words,  and 
inventions  of  another,  which  have  not  confessedly  become 
common  property,  and  which  belong  of  right  to  one  man, 


§   24.      INVENTION.  277 

and  to  give  that  impression  to  others — this  is  a  clear  violation 
of  original  invention,  and  of  the  first  principles  of  morality. 

In  what^  then,  may  originality  of  invention  he  said  to  con- 
sist 9  It  consists,  in  the  first  place,  in  enunciating  truth 
which  is  the  subject  of  our  oxen  mental  perception  and  con- 
viction. It  is  not  preaching  truth  because  it  is  held  and 
believed  b}''  others.  Old  truth  must  be  made  new,  or  must 
receive  a  renewed  form,  by  passing  through  the  heat  and 
pressure  of  our  own  minds.  It  must  be  assimilated  into 
the  very  body  and  essence  of  our  own  thought.  It  must  be 
ours,  just  as  much  ours  as  it  was  the  apostle  Paul's  or 
Pascal's.  We  must  ourselves  preach  that  we  do  know,  and 
testify  that  we  have  seen  and  believed.  If  we  speak  of 
thoughts,  or  ideas,  in  contradistinction  from  truths,  we  see 
at  once  that  there  are  many  ideas  that  have  sprung  up  in 
original  minds,  that  are  jieculiar  to  these  minds,  and  that 
bear  the  lineaments  of  their  orio;in.  These  cannot  be- 
run  through  our  own  minds,  and  come  out  with  a  new 
stamp  of  our  own  upon  them :  they  must  be  left  as  they 
are ;  and  if  used  by  us,  their  authorship  should  be  ac- 
knowledged. Individual  thoughts  and  ideas  about  a  truth, 
and  new  aspects  of  it  discovered  by  different  minds,  are 
different  from  the  truth  itself,  which  belongs  to  all  minds. 

Again,  it  consists  in  treating  a  subject  independently,  or 
in  using  arguments,  proofs,  and  methods,  which  are  the  re- 
sult of  our  own  thinking  and  investigation.  We  may  some- 
times take  old  arguments,  but  we  do  not  take  an  argu- 
ment because  it  is  old,  or  because  another  has  used  it; 
but  because  we  think  it  is  sound,  and  because  we  have 
come  upon  it  in  our  own  thinking,  and  know  its  value. 
We  occupy  no  other  man's  precise  point  of  view.  We  use 
an  argument  because  our  own  judgment  approves  of  it ;  be- 
cause, even  if  we  have  not  invented  it,  we  have  at  least 
felt  its  power  and  our  need  of  it.  This  principle  applies 
particularly  to  the  plans  of  sermons.  The  plan  of  a  ser- 
mon is  so  connected  with  our  whole  process  of  thought 
24 


278  PREACHING. 

upon  a  subject,  it  is  in  fact  so  truly  the  reproduction  of  that 
process  of  thought,  and  is  in  every  way  so  individual  and 
vital,  that  for  one  preacher  to  use  bodily  the  plan  of  another 
man  as  his  own,  without  making  it  known,  is  inexcusable. 
Therefore,  all  books  which  purport  to  be  aids  in  forming  plans 
of  sermons,  are  moral  nuisances,  and  should  be  thoroughly 
condemned.  They  are  the  excuses  of  indolence.  This  is 
not  saying  that  a  preacher  may  not  legitimately  and  honestly 
derive  suggestions  and  helps  from  others  in  forming  his 
plan  of  a  sermon,  even  from  those  perhaps,  who  have 
written  upon  the  same  theme,  although  that  is  always  a 
hazardous  thing,  and  one  should  avoid  reading  another  ser- 
mon upon  the  same  subject  before  writing  his  own. 

Still  again,  originality  consists  in  inventing  subjects  that 
are  really  new.  Truth  is  so  large,  and,  indeed,  limitless  in 
its  range,  that  one  may  still  bean  inventor.  He  can  discover 
new  forms  of  truth,  and  make  new  combinations  of  forms 
that  have  never  before  existed ;  and  that  is  a  wonderful  gain 
in  preaching.  There  is  such  a  plodding  on  in  fiimiliar  ruts 
of  thought,  that  something  really  new  has  all  the  effect  of 
suddenly  turning  into  a  by-road  in  the  woods,  that  refreshes 
and  awakes  the  mind ;  for  nothing  so  delights  the  mind, 
even  the  mind  of  the  uncultivated,  as  a  new  view  of  truth- 
Freshness  of  thought  is  not  a  mere  weak  or  dazzling  novelty. 
Vinet  has  some  pregnant  remarks  upon  this  point.  "  There 
is,  then,"  he  says,  "legitimate  novelty  —  a  novelty  even  of 
subjects  —  not  of  doctrines,  but  of  themes.  By  this  means, 
art,  which  is  an  affair  of  humanity,  renovates  itself;  the 
gospel  is  unchangeable,  but  it  is  divine.  In  order  to  attain 
the  novelty  of  which  we  speak,  genius  is  not  necessary,  and 
the  preacher  has  only  to  open  his  eyes  and  observe.  Let 
him  not  confine  himself  to  a  general  and  abstract  idea  of  man, 
but  let  him  study  the  men  who  are  before  him,  and  to  whom 
he  speaks.  If  he  will  but  take  this  pains,  he  will  be  new. 
The  study  is  a  difficult  one,  requiring  constant  attention  — 


§  24.       INVENTION.  279 

one  in  which  zeal  will  sustain  and  direct  him,  but  from 
which  he  is  not  to  be  excused." 

Lastly,  originality  of  invention  consists  in  e^ivploying  one's 
own  language  and  style.  Who  can  be  in  any  sense  original 
who  does  not  give  the  impress  and  superscription  of  his 
individual  style  to  his  production?  Who  can  doubt  the 
originality  of  the  writing  of  Chalmers,  or  of  Eobert  South? 
Good  or  bad,  true  or  false,  it  was  their  own. 

In  concluding  this  point,  w^e  would  say,  that  two  great  and 
legitimate  sources  of  originality  to  the  preacher  are  original 
exegesis  of  the  Scriptures,  and  the  bringing  of  one's  own 
experience  and  observation  of  life  to  bear  in  the  treatment 
of  spiritual  truth. 

(c.)  It  must  be,  in  the  case  of  the  preacher.  Christian 
truth.  This  is  required,  if  for  no  other  reason,  for  the  sake 
of  those  whom  he  addresses.  They  are  to  be  won  to  God  by 
means  of  Christian  truth,  and  they  can  be  won  in  no  other 
way.  Christ,  as  the  way  of  eternal  life,  must  be  in  the  truth 
that  reall}'^  converts  the  soul.  As  far  as  the  hearers  are  con- 
cerned, there  is  no  room  for  violating  this  rule.  Whatever 
does  not  partake  essentially  of  the  nature  of  Christian  truth 
is  not  the  true  subject  of  the  preacher's  instructions.  The 
.preacher,  besides  this,  is  also  positively  commissioned  and 
commanded  to  preach  Christian  truth,  summed  u]3  in  the 
brief  sentence,  "  Christ  and  him  crucified."  This,  it  is  true, 
comprehends  a  vast  sweep  of  truth,  as  may  be  illustrated  in 
the  preaching  of  Paul,  in  which  Christ  formed  the  subject- 
matter —  all  beginning  and  ending  in  Christ.  Yet  how 
broad,  doctrinally  and  ethically,  was  the  range  of  Paul's 
preaching  !  It  goes  to  the  ordering  of  our  entire  human  life 
below,  and  rises  into  the  sublime  mysteries  of  the  life 
which  is  to  come.  What,  then,  let  us  ask  more  particu- 
larly, is  meant  by  Christian  trutM 

1.  It  is  that  truth  which  may  be  assimilated  into  Christian- 
ity. In  one  sense,  all  truth  may  become  part  of  Christianity  ; 
but  whatever  of  truth  can  be  just  as  well  treated  of  and 


280  PREACHmG. 

discussed,  if  Ciiristianity  were  not,  or  were  out  of  the  way, 
could  not  properly  be  called  Christian  truth.  Christianity 
could  hardly,  for  example,  assimilate  to  itself  such  a  truth 
as  the  science  of  botany,  so  as  to  make  it  an  exclusive  subject 
for  the  pulpit,  although  botany  may  be  used  most  happily  in 
the  way  of  illustration,  and  even  of  direct  teaching,  when- 
ever the  natural  works  of  God  are  treated  of;  for  the  prin- 
ciples of  botany,  as  far  as  the  science  is  concerned,  could 
be  just  as  well  treated  of  by  a  heathen  as  a  Christian,  and 
by  a  natural  philosopher  as  a  Christian  preacher ;  therefore 
it  is  more  proper  for  the  scientific  lecture  than  for  the 
pulpit. 

2.  It  is  that  truth  which  tends  to  edify.  Whatever  is 
addressed  exclusively  to  the  intellect,  or  the  feelings,  or 
the  imagination,  or  the  prudential  nature,  and  does  not 
afford  nutriment  to  the  spiritual  nature,  cannot  form  the 
true  subject-matter  of  preaching.  There  must  be  the  bread 
of  life  for  the  soul  to  feed  upon  —  a  fragment  of  that  eter- 
nal truth  revealed  by  God's  Spirit  to  the  soul.  It  must  be 
the  genuine  word  of  God.  Truths,  therefore,  which  end  in 
this  earthly  sphere  of  things,  Avhich  are  purely  intellectual, 
scientific,  or  social  truths,  should  be  but  iucidentallj^  treated 
of  in  the  pulpit.  It  is  good  to  apply  Christian  truth  to 
worldly  affairs,  and  to  inculcate  wise  maxims  in  regard  to 
the  daily  business  and  pursuits  of  life ;  but  to  preach  an 
entire  sermon  upon  "  business  thrift,"  without  a  higher  aim 
or  a  deeper  moral  intent,  would  be  an  inexcusable  secu- 
larization of  the  pulpit.  In  like  manner  scientific  sub- 
jects which  do  not  nourish  the  moral  or  spiritual  nature, 
even  if  they  have  a  true  relation  to  the  general  good  and 
enlightenment  of  men,  were  better  discussed  in  their  own 
proper  places  and  methods.  "In  iuterpreting  the  soul,  and 
in  revealing  God,,  Jesus  aimed  at  more  than  simpl}'  commu- 
nicating new  and  ennobling  knowledge  to  the  world.  What 
humanity  needed  was,  not  merely  to  understand  God ;  it 
needed  still  more  to  learn  how  the  soul  might  be  restored 


§  24.      INVENTION.  281 

to  God,  and  how  God  might  dwell  in  the  soul."^  The  pul- 
pit may  be,  at  times,  scientific  in  its  treatment  of  the  higher 
truth,  but  it  should  not  sell  itself  to  scientific  form ;  and 
even  theological  scientific  discussion  may  become  barren 
and  wholly  out  of  place  in  the  pulpit.  While  it  is  true  that 
subjects  which  treat  of  the  means  of  true  social  progress 
may  very  properly  be  introduced  into  the  Christian  pul- 
pit, yet  subjects  which  end  altogether  in  questions  relating 
to  the  principles,  arts,  and  laws  of  general  civilization,  in 
which  man  in  general  is  discussed  and  not  man  in  particular, 
—  these  should  not,  ordinarily,  form  its  exclusive  themes; 
such  themes  are  better  reserved  for  the  lecture  than  the  ser- 
mon. A  subject,  in  fine,  which  has  not,  or  cannot  possibly  be 
made  to  have,  a  decidedly  spiritual  and  Christian  bearing, 
which  does  not  radically  influence  character,  which  does  not 
prepare  the  way  for  Christ  to  come  in  the  soul,  and  which 
does  not  concern  tire  interests  of  his  eternal  kingdom  should 
not  be  made  a  complete  and  separate  subject  for  the  pulpit. 
Every  sermon  need  not  enunciate  Christian  dogma,  but 
every  sermon  should  breathe  the  spirit  of  the  gospel,  and 
bear  its  message  of  peace  to  the  soul.  It  should  come 
under  that  new  system  of  truth,  that  higher  manifestation 
of  the  divine  in  the  human,  which  has  Christ  for  its  spiritual 
centre.  It  should  not  be  preaching  purely  to  the  reason, 
or  to  the  logical  facultj^  or  to  the  sesthetical  faculty ;  but 
Christ  should  speak  in  it  to  man's  spirit,  impelling  to  duty, 
repentance,  and  a  holy  life. 

Christian  truth,  which  should  be  thus  the  subject  of  our 
preaching,  may  be  viewed  more  specifically  still,  as  consist- 
ing of  three  parts  :  Christian  doctrine,  Christian  morality , 
and  Christian  expe^nence. 

1.  Christian  doctrine.  Here  we  find  the  main  subject- 
matter,  or  the  real  staple  of  preaching.  This  doctrine  is 
simply  the  teaching  or  truth  of  God  which  is  necessary  for 


'  Young's  Christ  in  History,  p.  144. 

24* 


282  PREACHING. 

the  nourishing  of  the  soul.  But  even  this  Christian  doc- 
trine, as  we  have  said,  when  treated  in  a  scientific  man- 
ner, may  become  the  mere  nutriment  of  the  intellect,  and 
not  of  t\ie  soul.  While,  therefore,  there  should  be  enough 
of  theological  discussion  in  a  sermon  to  present  the  subject 
clearly,  to  remove  its  difficulties,  to  develop  it  in  an  or- 
derly manner;  yet,  after  all,  the  discussion  of  truth  is  not 
the  end  of  the  sermon,  which  is  to  awake,  edify,  renew 
the  soul.  As  a  general  rule,  broad  synthetical  views  of 
truth  are  the  best.  Paul,  though  a  born  dialectician,  will  be 
found,  when  thoroughly  studied,  to  present  doctrinal  truth 
in  an  almost  totally  unscientific,  and  oftentimes  even  illogi- 
cal form  ;  for  while  he  preached  doctrine,  it  was  rather  in 
the  living  forms  and  teachings  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  than 
in  those  systematic  methods  which  we  commonly  associate 
with  the  idea  of  "doctrine"  —  good  for  the  treatise,  but  not 
good  for  the  pulpit.  * 

Dr.  Alexander  thus  remarks  on  this  point:  "lam  im- 
pressed with  the  importance  of  choosing  great  subjects  for 
sermons,  such  as  creation,  the  deluge,  the  atonement,  the 
last  things.  A  man  should  begin  early  to  grapple  with 
great  subjects.  An  athlete  (2  Tim.  2  :  5)  gains  might  only 
by  great  exertions.  So  that  a  man  does  not  overstrain  his 
powers,  the  more  he  wrestles  the  better;  but  he  must 
wrestle,  not  merely  take  a  great  subject,  and  dream  over 
it,  and  play  with  it." 

We  should  agree  generally  with  this  suggestion  ;  but  still 
we  would  find  the  great  subject  in  the  text  itself,  or  in  some 
portion  of  the  divine  word,  rather  than  to  find  a  text  for  the 
subject,  even  if  it  be  of  a  doctrinal  character.  The  "  great 
subjects "  that  Dr.  Alexander  speaks  of  will  come  more 
readily  through  concentrated  thought  upon  some  definite 
passage  of  God's  word  than  through  the  choice  of  a  great 
subject,  commonly  so  called.  It  is  better,  for  example,  to 
find  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  as  it  lies  originally  and 
naturally,  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Komans,  and  be  filled  and  in- 


§  24.      INVENTION.  283 

spired  by  the  study  of  this  whole  Epistle,  than  to  deliberate- 
ly write  a  sermon  on  the  abstract  and  theological  doctrine  of 
the  "atonement,"  and  preach  upon  it  in  the  ordinary  formal 
mode  of  discussion.  "  In  our  anxiety  to  set  forth  a  sound 
code  of  truth,  we  have  been  directing  men,  for  example,  to 
the  naked  formula  of  justification,  rather  than  to  Him  by 
whom  we  are  saved,  and  who  all  the  day  long  stretches  out 
his  arms  to  receive  the  returning  sinner.  We  have  been 
teaching  men,  perhaps,  to  trust  to  a  system^  instead  of  repo- 
sing on  a  personal  Saviour."^  The  most  profitable  form 
of  preaching  is  that  Avhich,  drawn  fresh  from  scriptural 
sources,  unites  the  doctrinal  and  the  practical,  and  recog- 
nizes the  fact  that  the  end  of  Christian  doctrine  is  to  teach 
men  how  to  live  a  good  and  holy  life. 

Controversial  preaching  of  Christian  doctrine  is  rarely 
profitable.  It  may  be  sometimes  needful ;  but,  generally 
speaking,  the  setting  forth  of  the  true  doctrine  is  the  best 
way  to  refute  doctrinal  error ;  for  a  minister  of  the  gospel 
is  not  called  to  be  a  heresy-hunter ;  but  he  should,  by  God's 
aid,  make  such  a  blaze  of  light  about  him  that  falsehood 
cannot  live  in  it. 

Preaching  upon  Christian  evidences  is  generally  consid- 
ered to  be  useful ;  yet,  after  all,  is  not  the  best  evidence  of 
Christianity  the  manifestation  of  the  truth  in  the  love  of  it? 
The  defensive  side  of  truth  should  certainly  not  be  dwelt 
upon  too  long  in  a  pulpit  which  should  speak  with  assurance 
and  authority.  Why  should  there  be  a  timidly  apologetic 
tone  forever  going  forth  from  our  Christian  pulpits,  as  if  the 
Bible  were  an  unknown  book  that  needs  to  be  alwaj^s  prov- 
ing its  divine  authority  ?  or  as  if  it  had  not  been  attested  by 
ages  of  lio^ht?  or  as  if  the  books  and  words  of  men,  of 
the  great  thinkers  of  past  and  present  times,  brought  to- 
gether, could  equal  in  creative  power  and  brightness  one 
ray  of  the  sun  of  God's    word?    or  as  if  Christ  were   an 

•  Oxenden's  Treatise,  p.  109. 


284  PREACHENG. 

obscure  personage  still  traversing  the  hills  of  Judea  in 
peasant  guise,  and  not  having  where  to  lay  his  head?  If 
Christianity  has  not  proved  itself  by  this  time  to  be  true, 
it  will  never  prove  itself  to  be  so ;  and  therefore  we  would 
have  preachers  take  higher  ground,  and  prove  the  truth  of 
Christianity  by  setting  it  forth  more  faithfully  and  compre- 
hensively. They  may  be  assured  that  this  is  their  one  duty, 
and  that  Christianity  is  able  to  take  care  of  its  own  evidences. 
We  do  not  say  by  this  that  the  preacher  should  not  study 
the  Christian  evidences,  and  that  it  is  not  good  for  him  to 
establish  these  in  his  mind,  and  to  bring  them  into  his  preach- 
ing and  pastoral  instruction,  for  confirmation  in  the  truth ; 
but  we  do  say  that  to  preach  too  much  on  the  evidences 
will  make  people  finally  begin  to  doubt  and  to  question. 
It  is  better  to  preach  Christ,  and  trust  to  the  gospel  to 
prove  itself.  In  pretty  much  the  same  category  we  would 
place  preaching  upon  natural  theology.  Vinet  considers 
that,  under  the  Christian  system,  there  is  no  such  thing, 
properly  speaking,  as  natural  religion.  He  thinks  that 
Christianity  takes  up,  completes,  and  transforms  natural 
truths,  so  that  they  become  Christian  truths.  Undoubt- 
edly, no  Christian  preacher  should  treat  of  natural  religion 
excepting  from  a  Christian  point  of  view;  he  should  not 
descend  to  the  former  level  of  uninspired  truth  ;  he  should 
show,  rather,  that  Christianity  is  the  natural  religion,  or 
that  it  has  in  perfection  all  that  nature  may  have  in  its  ele- 
ments, and  something  infinitely  more.  Christianity  can 
reason  down  upon  natural  religion  better  than  natural  reli- 
gion can  reason  up  to  Christianity;  for  while  nature,  as  the 
creation  of  God,  and  thus,  in  one  sense,  the  manifestation 
of  Grod,  may  not  be  neglected,  yet  the  Christian  minister 
should  not  lose  sight  of  his  higher  Cliristian  vantage  ground, 
and  preach  natural  religion  or  natural  theology.  In  fine, 
the  great  permanent  theme  of  Christian  doctrinal  preaching 
is,  that  fact  of  human  redemj)tion,  in  all  its  wide-spread 
ramif  cations  and  relations^  which  was  wrought  out  through 


§  24.      INVENTION.  285 

the  incarnation,  life,  atoning  death,  and  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ.  How  many  congregatious  languish  under  the  preach- 
ing of  eloquent  divines,  because  they  are  not  simply  and 
earnestly  taught  the  first  principles  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ, 
wherein  are  the  beginnings  of  all  spiritual  life  ;  for  Christ 
alone  is  the  life,  whatever  else  there  is  of  knowledge,  elo- 
quence, or  philosophy. 

2.  Christian  morality.  Christ  himself  made  one  chief 
element  of  his  preaching  to  consist  in  the  right  interpreta- 
tion of  the  moral  law  —  the  law  of  duty  and  life ;  and  here 
is  to  be  one  of  the  reforms  of  the  pulpit  —  that  it  should 
be  more  practical,  leading  to  ''charity  out  of  a  pure  heart;'' 
that  it  should  deal  with  the  whole  of  life  in  a  Christian  point 
of  view  —  with  man's  personal  relations  as  son,  husband, 
father,  friend,  neighbor,  citizen,  business  man,  and  member 
of  the  human  brotherhood.  "We  want  a  Christianity  that 
is  Christian  across  counters,  over  dinner-tables,  behind  the 
neio-hbor's  back  as  in  his  face.  We  want  a  Christianity  that 
we  can  find  in  the  temperance  of  the  meal,  in  moderation 
of  dress,  in  respect  for  authority,  in  amiability  at  home,  in 
veracity  and  simplicity  in  mixed  society.  We  want  fewer 
gossiping,  slandering,  gluttonous,  peevish,  conceited,  bigoted 
Christians.  To  make  them  eflfectual,  all  our  public  religious 
measures,  institutions,  benevolent  agencies,  missions,  need 
to  be  managed  on  a  high-toned,  scrupulous,  and  unquestion- 
able scale  of  honor,  without  evasion  or  partisanship,  or  over- 
much of  the  serpent's  cunning.  The  hand  that  gives  away 
the  Bible  must  be  unspotted  from  the  world.  The  money 
that  sends  the  missionary  to  the  heathen  must  be  honestly 
earned.  In  short,  both  the  arms  of  the  church — justice  and 
mercy  —  must  be  stretched  out,  working  for  man,  strength- 
ening the  brethren,  or  else  your  faith  is  vain,  and  ye  are  yet 
in  your  sins."  ^ 

Dr.  Chalmers  was  eminently  a  preacher  of  practical  mo- 
rality.    "  He  set  his  face  against  every  form  of  evil,  both 

*  Dr.  F.  D.  Huntington. 


286  PREACHING. 

in  the  pulpit  and  out  of  it.  He  particularly  pressed  upon 
country  people  thorough  honesty  and  uprightness,  and  the 
practice  of  the  law  of  love  by  abstaining  from  all  malice 
and  evil  speaking.  The  ostentation  of  flaming  orthodoxy, 
or  talk  of  religious  experience  which  was  not  borne  out  by 
the  life,  was  the  object  of  his  thorough  abhorrence."  When 
he  i^reached  his  commercial  sermons  in  Glasgow,  business 
men  would  leave  the  church  with  expressions  of  violent 
hostility,  but  they  would  be  present  when  he  preached  the 
succeeding  discourse.  To  tell  these  men  of  influence  and 
high  social  standing  that  their  city  was  given  up  to  the  idol- 
atry of  money,  and  that  where  the  love  of  money  is,  the 
love  of  God  could  not  be  —  to  show  them  how  even  busi- 
ness integrity  might  coexist  with  a  corrupt  heart,  and  that 
this  fair  show  of  virtue  might  spring  from  pure  selfishness 
—  required  no  common  courage. 

Christian  morality  should  not  be  confounded  with  natural 
virtue,  for  morality  may  be  treated  in  a  false  way  in  the 
pulpit,  by  disconnecting  it  from  the  life-springs  of  Christian 
faith.  "  Morals  can  seldom  gain  living  energy  without  the 
impulsive  force  derived  from  spirituals.  Plato  and  Cicero 
may  indeed  talk  of  the  surpassing  beauty  of  virtue  ;  nor  do 
we  doubt  that  a  man's  own  self-respect  may  make  him  choose 
to  die,  rather  than  live  degraded  in  his  own  eyes  by  devi- 
ating from  his  ideal  of  right  conduct.  Let  old  stoicism  be 
confessed  to  be  noble  and  honorable  ;  yet  it  makes  the  mind 
too  exclusively  reflexive,  and  engenders  pride  and  self-con- 
fidence. Virtue  is  an  abstraction,  a  set  of  wise  rules, — not  a 
person,  —  and  cannot  call  out  affection,  as  an  exterior  to  the 
soul  does.  On  the  contrary,  God  is  a  person  ;  and  the  love 
of  him  is  of  all  affections  far  the  most  energetic  in  excitinsr 
us  to  realize  our  highest  idea  of  moral  excellence,  and  in 
clearing  the  moral  sight.  Other  things  being  equal  (a  con- 
dition not  to  be  forgotten) ,  a  spiritual  man  will  hold  a  higher 
and  purer  morality  than  a  mere  moralist.  Not  only  does 
duty  manifest  itself  to  him  as  an  ever-expanding  principle. 


§  24.      INVENTION.  287 

but,  since  a  larger  part  of  duty  becomes  pleasant  and  easy 
when  performed  under  the  stimulus  of  love,  the  will  is  ena- 
bled to  concentrate  itself  more  in  that  which  remains  diffi- 
cult, and  greater  power  of  performance  is  attained.  Hence, 
'what  the  law  could  not  do,  in  that  it  was  weak  through  the 
flesh,'  is  fulfilled  in  those  'who  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  but 
after  the  spirit.'  "  ^ 

Moral  duty  may  be  treated  by  the  preacher  philosophi- 
cally, or  rationally,  or  prudentially,  and  yet  not  vitally,  as 
touched  by  the  Christian  principle,  which  concerns  itself 
with  the  inner  rule  of  right,  and  the  mind's  choice  to  do 
right  or  wrong.  The  virtue  of  temperance  may  be  thus 
made  a  stoical,  or  political,  or  hygienic  virtue,  and  be  vio- 
lently torn  out  of  the  circle  of  Christian  virtues  and  of  that 
Christian  character  which  is  moulded  freely  by  the  great 
law  of  righteousness  and  love. 

There  is  also  the  interesting  field  of  the  application  of 
Christian  morality  to  questions  of  government,  citizenship, 
and  politics.  De  Tocqueville  says,  "It  appears  to  me  that 
morality  is  divisible  into  two  portions,  both  equally  impor- 
tant in  the  eyes  of  God,  but  which  his  ministers  do  not  teach 
with  equal  energy.  One  respects  private  life  —  the  duties 
of  mankind,  a  father,  children,  husbands  and  wives;  the 
other  respects  public  life  —  the  duties  of  every  citizen  to 
his  country  and  to  the  portion  of  the  human  race  to  which 
he  specially  belongs.  Am  I  mistaken  in  thinking  that  our 
clergy  care  much  about  the  first  branch  of  morality,  and 
little  about  the  second  ?  "  As  to  the  question  of  preaching 
upon  politics,  it  is  true  that  human  politics,  in  the  ordinary 
sense  of  the  term,  should  not  form  the  theme  of  the  preacher 
of  eternal  truth  ;  but  a  higher  idea  of  the  subject  of  politics 
viewed  as  the  application  of  Christian  ethics  to  human  afiairs 
and  government,  as  the  life-principle  of  the  state  —  this  is  a 
difierent  thing ;  and  here  it  comes  fairly  under  De  Tocque- 
ville's  second  division  of  public  morality.     Upon  this  sub- 

'  F.  W.  Newman,  The  Soul,  p.  124. 


288  PEEACIIING. 

ject  the  preacher  is  conscientiously  bound,  under  proper 
limitatioDS,  and  according  to  the  proportions  of  truth,  to 
bestow  his  thought  and  give  his  instructions.  And  he  is 
the  more  bound  to  do  so  when  those  instructions  are  pecu- 
liarly needed,  when  public  opinion  has  gone  wrong,  when 
there  is  a  decided  and  dangerous  perversion  of  right  prin- 
ciples in  relation  to  civil  matters,  when  men  and  the  state 
have  become  oppressive  and  unjust,  and  when  liberty  is 
imperilled.  Then  the  preacher  should  stand  up  boldly,  and 
proclaim  the  right,  even  as  did  John  the  Baptist,  Peter, 
and  Paul.  This  is  not  only  the  preacher's  privilege,  but  his 
duty ;  he  would  be  basely  derelict  in  duty  not  to  do  so. 
As  an  American,  he  would  be  false  to  the  history  and  ex- 
ample of  a  Puritan  pulpit,  which,  in  the  Old  World  and  the 
New,  has  ever  upheld  the  cause  of  freedom.  And  yet  that 
is  not  advocating  political  preaching,  of  which,  it  may  be, 
there  has  been  too  much  in  the  past.  Dr.  South  was  what 
we  should  call  a  "political  preacher,"  even  as,  doubtless, 
many  who  opposed  him  were  "political  preachers;"  for 
men  like  South  fought  for  their  party  in  the  pulpit,  and 
with  all  kinds  of  weapons ;  and  their  minds  were  evidently 
more  ardently  engaged  in  these  partisan  conflicts  than  in 
the  great  ends  of  preaching  the  gospel. 

To  speak  more  particularly  of  questions  of  moral  reform^ 
while  these  should  enter  into,  yet  even  these  should  not 
form  the  main  substance  and  material  of,  true  preaching ; 
for  the  preacher  should  be  seen  to  have  the  deeper  mind  to 
delight  to  make  Christ  all  in  all ;  and  he  should  speak  on 
these  subjects  of  moral  reform  as  Christ's  messenger,  as 
expressing  his  pure  and  loving  will ;  for  Christian  morality 
is,  after  all,  nothing  but  the  carrying  out  and  the  universal 
application  of  the  law  of  love.  "This  is  the  particular  vice 
of  preachers.  They  are  set  to  teach  people  the  right  way, 
and,  of  course,  they  have  to  assert  the  wrong  way ;  and 
unless  a  preacher  is  careful  to  study  the  effect  of  these 
things  on  his  mind,  he  will  come  into  that  state  in  which  he 


§  24.       INVENTION.  289 

lashes  and  lashes  and  lashes  with  his  tongue  those  that  go 
astray;  and,  if  he  gives  his  attention  to  public  affairs,  he 
will  be  a  volcano  belching  out  fires  of  indignation  against 
evil,  so  that  the  whole  impression  that  he  leaves  on  the 
minds  of  those  who  hear  him  is  one  of  gigantic  fault-finding. 
A  minister  before  a  congregation  may  preach  against  sin 
till  he  has  set  every  man  to  sinning ;  for  the  way  to  make 
men  better  is  not  to  hold  up  evil  for  criticism,  but  to  show 
forth  the  attractiveness  of  good."^  There  is  a  noticeable 
difference  between  being  a  Christian  reformer  and  a  Chris- 
tian preacher,  and  the  Christian  preacher  should  be  both ; 
but  he  should  be  a  preacher  distinctively  and  primarily. 
"  By  the  time  a  man  has  been  a  reformer  ten  or  fifteen  years, 
he  is  apt  to  be  a  fault-finding  man.  It  is  not  always  so. 
God  be  thanked  that  there  have  been  such  men  as  Clarkson 
and  Wilberforce  —  men  that  took  the  devil  by  the  throat, 
and  caught  nothing  of  his  sulphur  and  fire ;  men  that  with 
all  gentleness,  and  sweetness,  and  meekness,  and  forbear- 
ance, and  Christian  love,  rebuked  the  most  gigantic  evil  of 
their  day  and  nation.  But  the  temptation  of  those  that  go 
forth  reforming  sin  is  to  become  bitter,  and  censorious,  and 
fault-finding."  2  Let  a  minister  be,  first  of  all,  a  preacher 
of  Christian  truth,  and  then  he  will,  of  necessity,  be  a  re- 
former ;  let  him  look  well  to  the  positive  side  of  truth  —  to 
the  establishment  of  truth  —  and  from  this  position  let  him 
attack  the  institutions  of  sin.  In  this  way  he  will  preserve 
his  balance,  and  not  become  denunciatory,  or  lose  the  blessed 
charity  of  the  gospel  for  human  sins.  With  the  conditions 
and  limitations  thus  laid  down,  the  gospel  is  to  be  applied 
freely,  boldly,  searchingly,  to  all  relations  of  human  life 
and  society.  Few  American  preachers  have  done  this  with 
more  power  than  Dr.  Channing,  though  iu  doctrinal  views  we 
entirely  differ  from  him ;  but  to  him  belongs  the  credit  of 


^  Eev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  in  the  Independent,  1860. 
*  Rev.  H,  W.  Beecher. 

25 


290  PREACHING. 

nobly  and  freely  applying  in  his  preaching  the  principles 
of  Christian  ethics  to  matters  of  social,  governmental,  and 
public  reform  ;  and  his  sermons,  in  this  respect,  are  still  a 
model,  not  only  in  eloquent  thought,  but  in  the  large  sym- 
pathy which  the}^  manifest  for  the  moral  condition  and  pros- 
pects of  the  whole  human  family. 

While  thus  advocating  strongly  the  preaching  of  moral 
reform  under  the  conditions  that  have  been  laid  down,  we 
would  guard  against  any  encouragement  of  that  kind  of 
minute  police  system  of  moral-reform  preaching  which  pries 
into  other  men's  business,  which  hectors  and  dragoons  them 
into  duty,  and  which  labors  to  mend  every  little  social  abuse, 
error,  and  evil  in  the  community,  in  this  public  way ;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  we  would  advocate  the  idea  that  the  truth 
itself  should  be  faithfully,  patiently,  lovingly,  fearlessly 
preached,  and  it  will,  in  due  time,  correct  those  lesser  faults 
and  abuses. 

3.  Ghridian  experience.  We  need  not  dwell  upon  this. 
Here  is  an  opportunity  for  meditative  and  richly  subjective 
preaching.  One  may  follow  here  the  windings  of  the  water 
of  the  river  of  life,  that  hidden  life  of  God  in  an  individual 
experience  of  divine  truth,  which,  taken  out  of  the  revealed 
word,  forms  the  present,  working,  transforming  power  of 
the  life  of  Christ  in  the  soul  of  each  believer. 

Need  there  be  any  lack  of  subject-matter  in  such  a  wide 
field  as  that  which  has  been  glanced  over  ?  Need  invention 
pause  for  a  moment  in  discovering  new,  inspiring,  and  ex- 
haustless  themes  for  the  pulpit? 

In  what  has  been  said  on  invention,  we  have  endeavored 
to  show  that  while  the  vagaries,  unlicensed  luxuriance,  and 
unbounded  secularization  of  pulpit  themes  and  of  preaching 
should  be  much  restricted,  yet  that  the  field  of  preaching 
might  really  be  greatly  enlarged,  and  rendered  at  the  same 
time  more  profound  and  effective.  It  would  be  both  more 
human  and  more  divine.  It  would  be  more  truly  Christian 
preaching,  —  springing  from  the  divine  word,  and  saturated 


§  25.       STYLE.  291 

with  the  new  spirit  of  Christ,  —  not  merely  moral,  scien- 
tific, philosophical,  or  sentimental.  All  life,  all  nature,  all 
human  relations,  would  be  thrown  open  to  the  transforming 
power  of  Christ;  the  pulpit  would  be  unbound,  and  respon- 
sible for  its  utterances  to  God  alone ;  yet  it  would  be  de- 
voted simply  to  the  divine  will,  and  to  the  glory  of  God  in 
the  saving  of  souls. 

Rhetorically  speaking,  invention,  more  than  anything  else, 
shows  the  true  artist ;  thus,  rhetorically  speaking,  invention 
shows  the  true  orator.  Cicero  makes  much  of  invention  in 
his  De  Oratore ;  and,  highl}''  as  he  regards  the  importance 
of  style,  he  thinks  that  what  an  orator  has  to  say,  or  the 
methodized  subject-matter  of  discourse,  is  of  far  more  im- 
portance. He  divides  oratory  into  five  parts:  "To  invent 
what  you  have  to  say,  to  arrange  what  you  have  invented, 
to  clothe  it  in  proper  language,  then  to  commit  it  to  mem- 
ory, and  at  last  to  deliver  it  with  due  action  and  elocution."  ^ 
If  Cicero  placed  invention  first,  in  regard  to  the  mere  ora- 
tor, how  much  more  important  is  it  to  the  preacher  of  divine 
truth  ! 

§  25.     Style, 

"Style"  is  a  complex  term,  and,  therefore,  definitions  of 
style  differ,  and  some  of  them  are  quite  incomplete ;  for 
example,  Webster's  definition,  that  style  is  "the  manner  of 
writing  with  regard  to  language,  or  the  choice  and  arrange- 
ment of  words."  That,  however,  it  must  be  said,  coincides 
with  the  ancient  definition  of  style,  which  was,  "the  proper 
selection  and  arrangement  of  words,"  or,  what  amounted  to 
the  same  thing,  "elocution."  Webster's  definition,  founded 
upon  this  ancient  one,  comprehends  what  we  would  mean 
by  ^' diction. ^^ 

Professor  H.  N.  Day's  definition  of  style  is,  "That  part 
of  rhetoric  which  treats  of  the  expression  of  thougJit  in  lan- 
guage."    Here  the  important  idea  of  "thought"  is  added 

»  De  Oratore,  B.  XI.,  p.  104. 


292  '  PREACHING. 

to  that  of  "language,"  or  of  "diction."  Vinet  goes  fartlier 
still.  He  says,  "Diction  is  not  the  whole  man,  while  the 
whole  man  is  the  style ; "  or,  in  the  familiar  phrase  of  Buf- 
fon,  "The  style  is  the  man." 

Evidently,  then,  style  is  not  merely  the  language,  nor  is 
it  merely  the  verbal  expression  of  thought ;  but  it  is  the  ex- 
pression of  the  man  himself  through  language.  We  would, 
therefore,  prefer  the  following,  as,  i3erhaps,  a  more  general 
and  comprehensive  definition  :  Style  is  the  expression  in 
language  of  the  thought,  qualities,  and  spirit  of  the  man 
[himself. 

From  this  it  would  follow  that  a  man  who  does  not  ex- 
press himself — his  individual  thought  and  character  —  in 
his  language  has  no  "style,"  properly  speaking;  for  it  is 
not  every  piece  of  composition  that  has  a  "style,"  any  more 
than  every  building. 

Style  is  sometimes  disparaged,  and  all  eflfort  to  improve 
it  is  scouted  ;  but  to  write  clearly  assists  one  to  think  clearly, 
since  the  effort  to  express  one's  self  in  the  best  way  is  itself 
a  noble  mental  discipline.  Cicero  says  that  "  writing  is  the 
most  excellent  modeller  and  teacher  of  oratory,  and  that  men 
by  speaking  badly  are  sure  of  becoming  bad  speakers."  ^ 

Style,  according  to  the  definition  we  have  given,  is  com- 
posed of  two  elements :  first,  of  something  independent  of 
the  man  himself,  and  common  to  all  men,  viz.,  language; 
and,  secondly,  of  something  which  depends  entirely  upon  the 
man  himself,  and  his  relations  to  those  things  which  influence 
his  style;  in  other  words,  there  are  certain  properties  of 
style  which  are  essential,  and  which  chiefly  relate  to  lan- 
guage ;  and  there  are  other  properties,  which  are  originated, 
or,  at  least,  colored,  by  the  individual  thought  and  niind  of 
the  writer,  and  by  all  his  relations  to  other  minds  whom  he 
addresses.  These  have  been  called  the  invariable  and  the 
related  properties  of  style. 

I.  The  invariable  properties  of  style.     These  are  proper- 

'  De  Oratore,  B.  VII. 


§  25.     STYLE.  293 

ties  which  enter,  and  must  enter,  into  all  good  writing  and 
speaking  —  into  all  true  style ;  and  surely,  here  one  may 
profitably  spend  as  much  study  as  he  can  find  time  and  op- 
portunity to  spend.  He  can  always  be  perfecting  himself 
in  this  respect.  This  part  of  style  is  an  art  to  be  acquired 
like  any  other  art ;  for  it  relates  more  to  the  external  and 
mechanical  dexterity  of  the  writer  or  speaker  than  to  his 
Inward  thought  and  genius,  which  is  created,  rather  than 
acquired  ;  and  yet  even  this  more  external  character  of  style 
also  depends  largely  upon  the  natural  capacities  and  fitness 
of  the  mind.  This  part  of  style  may  all  be  comprised  under 
the  single  idea  of  language. 

Let  us,  then,  consider  language  in  relation  to  a  discourse, 
or,  according  to  our  original  definition  of  rhetoric,  in  rela- 
tion to  the  spoken  address. 

We  have  already  remarked  upon  the  general  theme  of 
the  Study  of  Language ;  we  would  now  look  at  language 
more  especially  in  its  relations  to  the  best  style  of  public 
discourse  —  in  a  word,  of  preaching. 

This  theme  can  be  divided  into  the  oral  and  the  grammat- 
ical properties  of  language. 

1.  Oral  properties  of  language. 

All  language  is  originally  intended  to  be  spoken ;  it  is, 
properly,  speech.  Even  if  written,  and  not  spoken,  the 
right  principles  of  articulate  sound  must  be  preserved,  and 
must  still  continue  to  govern  it ;  for  speech  is  the  ultimate 
test  of  language,  and  it  cannot  possibly  be  the  best  lan- 
guage unless  the  judgment  of  the  ear  is  satisfied.  A  sen- 
tence which  is  not  fitted  to  be  read  aloud  is  not  really  good 
languacfe. 

The  oral  properties  of  language  are  commonly  divided 
into  euphony  and  harmony. 

(«.)   Euphony.     Euphony,  in  its  relation  to  style,   has 

regard  solely  to  the  effect  of  sound  upon  the  ear,  or,  more 

definitely,  of  the  sound  of  words  upon  the  ear.  ^  It  applies 

chiefly,  though  not  altogether,  to  single  words.     Euphony, 

25* 


294  PREACHING. 

according  to  Vinet,  is  "the  combination  of  agreeable,  and 
the  exclusion  of  disagreeable,  sounds  in  language." 

Euphony  may  be  preserved,  — 

(1.)  By  avoiding  words  and  sentences  which  cause  harsh 
sounds.  These  are  generally  learned  and  compound  words, 
hard  to  be  pronounced,  and  mostly  of  Latin,  Greek,  and 
foreign  origin.  Dr.  Chalmers'  writings  contain  many  such 
words.  His  phrases  and  sentences  are  often  difficult  to  be 
read  aloud,  and  harsh  to  the  ear,  because  they  bring  so  many 
consonants  closely  together ;  these  are  all  striving  for  utter- 
ance at  once ;  the  organs  of  speech  labor  to  do  their  part, 
and  this  labor  destroys  the  smoothness  and  pleasantness  of 
the  sounds  they  produce.  One  should  seek,  as  a  general  rule 
of  euphony,  for  short,  radical,  easily-spoken  words,  although 
many  longer  Latin  words,  and  those  derived  from  the  Italian 
and  French,  are  exceedingly  euphonious.  A  familiar  exam- 
ple of  difficult  combinations  in  a  sentence  from  Scripture  is 
the  following:  "After  the  most  straitest  sect  of  our  religion 
I  lived  a  Pharisee." 

(2.)  By  avoiding  words  and  sentences  which  contain  a 
succession  of  unaccented  syllables;  such  words,  for  example, 
as  "meteorological,"  " desultoriness." 

(3.)  By  avoiding  long  sentences  in  lohich  new  and  varied 
ideas  are  introduced.  The  sound  will  be  disagreeably  affect- 
ed by  this ;  for  while  the  mind  is  employed  in  taking  in  the 
whole  meaning  of  every  part  of  the  sentence,  the  voice 
strains  and  struggles  along  after  it,  and  thus  necessarily 
grows  harsh.  One  should  always  give  himself  time  to 
breathe ;  the  country  and  the  world  may  be  perishing,  but 
the  orator,  in  order  to  continue  to  speak  with  effect,  must 
take  breath.  Periods,  therefore,  should  not  be  too  far  apart. 
We  would  not  condemn  long  sentences.  If  well  balanced 
and  well  composed,  the}'  add  greatly  to  the  solidity  of  a 
composition ;  but  in  relation  to  euphony  of  style,  of  which 
we  now  especially  speak,  if  the  sentence  is  long,  it  should 
be  carefully  adapted  for  speaking,  clearly  divided  and  skil- 


§  25.     STYLE.  295 

fully  arranged,  so  as  not  to  embarrass  articulation  in  the 
delivery. 

(b.)  Harmony.  Harmony  goes  farther  than  euphony, 
and  has  regard  to  sound  in  its  relation  to  thought.  It  is  not 
merely  phonetic  ;  it  is  not  merely  the  production  of  a  somid 
agreeable  to  the  ear,  or  the  avoidance  of  a  harsh  and  dis- 
agi-eeable  sound ;  but  it  has  to  do  with  the  rhythmic  fiow 
of  thought,  and  is  something  more  deeply  emotional  and 
mental.  Original  thought  usually  creates  harmony.  It 
does  so  because  it  seeks  for  unity  of  expression.  It  arouses 
that  feeling  which  makes  the  soul  and  its  powers  chord  to- 
gether in  one  note,  and  is  the  true  source  of  harmony.  Per- 
haps we  should  have  said,  instead  of  original  thought,  a 
true  feeling  of  the  soul,  one  that  is  deeper  even  than  thought, 
or  that  is  the  spring  of  thought :  this  produces  harmony 
of  language.  The  words  of  Ruth  to  Naomi  are  an  harmoni- 
ous expression  of  the  profoundest  feeling  :  ^^And  Ruth  said, 
Entreat  me  not  to  leave  thee,  or  to  return  from  following  after 
thee;  for  whither  thou  goest  I loill  go,  and  where  thou  lodg- 
est  I  will  lodge;  thy  people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy  God 
my  God.  Where  thou  diest  will  I  die,  and  there  will  I  be 
buried.  The  Lord  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if  aught  but 
death  part  thee  and  me." 

Now,  what  is  harmony  but  a  real  concord  or  agreement 
of  parts?  And  here  is  a  bringing  of  the  soul  of  Ruth,  by 
a  deep  purpose  of  feeling,  into  agreement  with  the  soul  of 
Naomi;  there  is  true  harmony  between  them.  I#  is  notice- 
able how,  through  the  whole  passage,  the  "thee  "  and  "me" 
are  continually  brought  into  one.  It  was  a  perfect  surren- 
der of  the  soul,  having  nothing  left  in  it  of  unsubdued, 
incongruous,  or  rebellious  feeling ;  and  this  inward  action 
of  the  soul  uttered  itself  in  harmonious  language,  like  an 
accord  of  music.  Harmony  of  soul  thus  makes  harmony 
of  style,  as  the  expression  of  devotional  feeling,  which  is 
the  chording  of  the  human  with  the  divine  soul,  and  with 
the  soul  of  all  that  is  divine  in  the  universe.     Harmony  of 


29.6  PREACHING. 

style  aids  the  expression  of  thought.  It  flows  forth  with  a 
rhythmical  flow.  It  is  a  subtile  but  deep  grace  of  style,  of 
which  the  Scriptures  are  full ;  as,  for  example,  the  seventy- 
third  and  one  hundred  and  seventh  Psalms,  our  Lord's  invi- 
tation to  the  weary,  and  the  last  chapter  of  the  book  of 
Revelation,  and  many  other  passages  of  profound  and  ma- 
jestic harmony. 

Prose,  it  is  true,  cannot  be  sung,  like  poetry,  in  numbers, 
but  it  may,  equally  with  poetry,  have  something  of  this 
rhythmic  character,  this  harmonious  flow.  Harmony  does 
not  arise  so  much  from  single  words  as  from  a  succession  of 
words,  or  from  a  sufficient  number  to  express  the  thought. 

We  quote  upon  this  subject  a  few  sentences  from  Cicero  : 
"Nor  is  there  a  single  quality,  out  of  many,  that  more  dis- 
tinguishes a  true  orator  from  an  unskilful  and  ignorant 
speaker  than  that  he  who  is  unpractised  pours  forth  all  he 
can,  without  discrimination,  and  measures  out  the  periods 
of  his  speech,  not  with  art,  but  by  the  power  of  his  breath ; 
but  the  orator  clothes  his  thoughts  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
comprise  them  in  a  flow  of  numbers,  at  once  confined  to 
measure,  yet  free  from  restraint;  for,  after  restricting  it 
to  proper  modulation  and  structure,  he  gives  it  an  ease  and 
freedom  by  a  variety  in  the  flow,  so  that  the  words  are 
neither  bound  by  strict  laws,  as  those  of  verse,  nor  yet 
have  such  a  degree  of  liberty  as  to  wander  without  control. 
There  is  nothing  so  pliant,  nothiug  so  flexible,  nothing  which 
will  so  easily  follow  whithersoever  you  incline  to  lead  it,  as 
language;  according,  therefore,  as  we  ourselves  are  grave, 
or  subtile,  or  hold  a  middle  course  between  both,  so  the 
form  of  our  language  follows  the  nature  of  our  thoughts, 
and  is  changed  and  varied  to  suit  every  method  by  which 
we  delight  the  ear  or  move  the  passions  of  mankind."  ^ 

These  remarks  of  Cicero  show  the  close  study  and  atten- 
tion which  the  ancients  gave  to  this  department  of  orator}^ ; 

'  De  Oratore,  B.  III.,  s.  xliv. 


§  25.     STYLE.  297 

they  thought  that  there  was  in  prose  a  harmony  of  numbers 
almost  like  that  in  poetry ;  that  "  the  musical  management 
of  the  voice  and  the  harmonious  structure  of  words  should 
be  transferred,  as  far  as  the  strictness  of  prose  would  admit, 
from  poetry  to  oratory." 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  ancients  were  far  more  ex- 
quisite observers  than  the  moderns  of  the  finer  powers  and 
application  of  art,  which  is,  in  fact,  but  a  deeper  nature. 

This  idea  of  harmony  of  style  should  not,  however,  be 
suffered  to  degenerate  into  an  attempt  at  making  music,  or 
musical  sentences.     This  in  a  sermon  would  be  intolerable. 

Yet  harmony  of  style  may  coexist  with  strength  and  en- 
ergy. Perhaps  there  is  no  writer  in  whose  prose  style  will 
be  found  more  varied  and  majestic  harmonies,  which  flow 
from  the  thought  even  more  than  from  the  words,  than 
Milton  ;  and  certainly  there  is  no  stronger,  more  masculine 
writer.  This,  too,  may  be  also  said  of  Lord  Bacon's  style, 
and  that  of  Robert  Hall. 

In  regard  to  preaching,  there  is  often  a  rhythmical  move- 
ment in  the  sermon,  springing  chiefly  from  the  thought, 
which  is  both  pleasing  and  powerful,  and  carries  on  the 
mind  of  the  hearer  by  a  strong,  resistless  flow.  Care  in 
little  things,  choice  of  words,  arrangement  of  sentences, 
smoothing  of  transitions,  attention  to  accents,  lengthening 
or  abbreviating  phrases,  may,  indeed,  aid  in  harmony ;  but 
still,  true  harmony  in  style  comes  usually,  as  we  have  said, 
from  deeper  sources. 

2.  Gra7nmatical  properties  of  language. 

This  is  what  De  Quincey  calls  the  "  mechanology  of  style." 
If  one  great  end  of  education  —  certainly  of  classical  edu- 
cation—  is  to  speak  and  write  well,  to  speak  and  write 
our  own  language  with  purity,  we  should  make  ourselves 
accurately  acquainted  with  the  grammar  of  our  own  lan- 
guage ;  for  many  of  the  worst  faults  of  style  arise  from 
grammatical  incorrectness.  Qiiintilian  declares  that  the 
orator  should  by  no  means  look  down  on  the  elements  of 


298  PREACHING. 

grammar  as  a  small  matter,  for  unless  a  good  foundation  in 
oratory  is  laid  in  grammar,  the  superstructure  will  surely 
fall.'  "  Was  Cicero,"  he  says,  "the  less  of  an  orator  because 
he  was  most  attentive  to  the  study  of  grammar,  and  because, 
as  appears  from  his  letters,  he  was  a  rigid  exacter,  on  all 
occasions,  of  correct  lanornaofe?" 

In  the  Life  of  Prescott,  the  historian,  we  read,  that  when  he 
was  a  young  man,  he  made,  once  for  all,  the  English  gram- 
mar his  particular  study,  and  gave  his  whole  time  and  energy 
to  it;  and  this  may  explain,  in  part,  the  purity  of  his  Eng- 
lish style,  which  Hallam  declared  to  be  perfect.  For  the 
preacher,  good  idiomatic  English,  as  may  be  seen  in  so  pow- 
erful a  preacher  as  John  Buuyan,  is  a  greater  conquest  than 
the  knowledge  of  Greek  or  German.  We  have  before,  in 
another  connection,  said  that  one  should  be  able  to  analyze 
every  sentence  he  writes,  word  by  word.  He  should  be  able, 
more  particularly,  to  tell  the  character  and  derivation  of  every 
substantive  word,  of  what  it  is  the  subject  or  the  object,  its 
opposition  with  another,  or  its  independence  by  address, 
exclamation,  pleonasm,  ellipsis  ;  to  tell  the  quality  and  name 
of  each  adjective,  and  whether  it  is  used  as  belonging  to 
something  else,  or  substantively  ;  to  describe  every  pronoun, 
and  what  it  refers  to  and  is  connected  with ;  to  characterize 
and  inflect  every  verb,  and  show  clearly,  if  a  finite  verb,  what 
it  agrees  with,  or,  if  an  infinitive,  what  it  has  for  its  sul)ject, 
or,  if  a  participial,  what  it  belongs  to,  and  in  the  whole  sen- 
tence what  its  use  is,  and  what  it  depends  upon  ;  to  show  what 
every  adverb  modifies  ;  what  every  preposition  governs  and 
marks  the  relation  of,  and  what  every  conjunction  and  connec- 
tive coordinates  or  subordinates  ;  in  fact,  to  parse  the  whole 
sentence,  whether  simple  or  complex,  and  to  be  able  to  give 
both  its  etymology  and  syntax.  This  is  really  no  easy  task  ; 
but  how  else  can  a  man  know  for  himself  if  he  writes  cor- 
rectly.    One  should  therefore  attend  to, — 

(a.)    Grammatical  a7ialysis,  so  far  as  to  be  able  to  detect 

>  Instit.,  B.  I.,  c.  4. 


§  25.     STYLE.  299 

common  errors  in  construction.  Many  of  these  might  profit- 
ably be  mentioned  ;  but  we  will  not  enter  into  these,  which 
form  so  portentous  an  array ;  we  will  refer  the  student 
to  any  good  English  grammar.  These  grammatical  errors 
relate  chiefly  to  the  improper  use  of  verbal  cases  and  tenses  ; 
the  use  or  omission  of  the  article ;  the  use  or  omission 
of  the  negative ;  the  employment  of  useless  intensives,  to 
which  American  writers  greatly  tend ;  the  mixing  of  the 
numbers  and  cases  of  pronouns.  (  "  The  management  of  pro- 
nouns," says  Mr.  Moon,  "is  the  test  of  a  scholar's  mastery 
over  language  "  )  ;  the  improper  or  superfluous  use  of  prep- 
ositions ;  the  awkward  use  of  conjunctives ;  the  false  use 
of  and  the  use  of  false  adverbs ;  the  wrong  agreement  of 
words  in  sentences  ;  the  improper  collocation  of  words ;  the 
making  of  weak  and  loose  sentences  through  the  too  o^reat 
separation  of  their  connected  parts,  or  what  Dr.  Campbell 
calls  "  a  constructive  ambiguity  ;  "  the  use  of  sentences  whose 
members  are  imperfect.  There  may  be,  it  is  true,  an  over- 
precision  of  style,  which  is  almost  as  bad  as  carelessness ; 
but  the  present  tendency  is  not  in  that  direction ;  and  what 
we,  as  preachers,  should  aim  at,  is  correct,  plain,  idiomatic 
English.     One  should  also  attend  to, — 

{b.)  Particular  words  and  phrases  which  are  common 
violations  of  grammatical  correctness,  or,  at  least,  of  elegant 
usage.  It  is  well  for  a  preacher  to  keep  a  list  of  these,  to 
which  he  is  continually  adding ;  and  that  will  serve  him  as  a 
reminder,  as  well  as  an  aid,  in  his  endeavor  after  grammati- 
cal correctness  of  style. 

II.  The  related  properties  of  style.  These  are  something 
-more  than  language  in  the  abstract,  and  comprehend  all  those 
relations  to  the  mind  and  condition,  both  of  the  speaker  and 
hearer,  which  affect  style.  They  refer  to  style  in  the  concrete, 
to  the  style  of  the  individual  who  is  speaking,  and  also  of  his 
speaking  upon  a  certain  subject,  for  a  certain  object,  and  to 
a  certain  class  of  hearers.  The  speaker's  individuality  and 
personality  are  now  infused  into  the  style,  and  color  it. 


300  PREACHING. 

1 .  TJiose  qualities  luhich  depend  upon  the  speaker  himself^ 
having  relation  chiefly  to  his  own  thought. 

These  are  appropriate  thought,  consecutive  thought,  and 
individuality  of  style  or  thought. 

{a.)  Appropriate  thought.  There  should  be  in  every  true 
discourse  not  only  thought,  but  thought  appropriate  to  the 
subject  and  the  occasion.  One  who  attempts  to  write  or 
speak  for  the  public  should  not  write  or  speak  nlerely  for 
the  sake  of  doing  so,  without  an  express  aim  or  purpose. 

The  beauty  of  the  style  of  the  ancient  classic  writers  is, 
according  to  John  Stuart  Mill,  that  it  is  so  highly  signifi- 
cant ;  that  there  are  no  words  or  phrases  which  are  meaning- 
less ;  that  there  is  little  writing,  apparently,  for  the  mere 
sake  of  writing ;  but  all  has  some  genuine  meaning,  some 
definite,  if  not  always  true,  sense.  This  realness  of  style 
makes  the  chief  strength  and  beauty  of  classical  writings. 
Whatcly,  on  the  contrary,  seems  to  give  something  like  this 
advice —  that  one  should  learn  facility  in  mere  word-making, 
without  (as  far  as  rhetoric  is  concerned)  caring  so  much  for 
the  thought.  But  such  advice  should  be  received  with  cau- 
tion, for  it  indicates,  we  think,  an  inadequate  conception 
of  the  theory  of  rhetoric.  Substantial  and  appropriate 
thought  is  the  foundation  of  every  true  discourse.  Demos- 
thenes never  dared  to  appeal  to  the  feelings  of  his  audience, 
or  to  urge  them  to  any  policy  or  action,  without  first  pre- 
senting a  solid  argument  for  his  views.  The  body  of  his 
orations  is  composed  of  substantial  reasoning ;  the  laying 
down  of  principles  and  facts  ;  appealing  to  sound  sense,  and 
appropriate  to  the  subject  and  occasion.  Such  a  process 
has  not  only  a  value  in  developing  the  subject  itself,  but  it 
idso  develops  the  man ;  it  shows  the  treasures  of  his  mind 
and  thought.  This  serves  to  create  confidence  in  the  correct- 
ness of  his  conclusions.  And  when  the  conclusion  is  urged 
upon  the  heart  and  conscience  of  the  audience,  they  are 
prepared  for  it.  The  force  of  the  speaker's  thought  has 
moulded  their  thought  into  an  image  of  his  own.     No  facil- 


§  25.      STYLE.  301 

ity  of  speech,  no  word-making,  can  ever  supply  the  place 
of  substantial  and  appropriate  thought.  Eloquence,  in  its 
widest  sense,  is,  first,  subjectively,  the  native  power  of 
thought,  and,  objectively,  the  art  of  using  this  so  that  it 
shall  attain  a  certain  worthy  and  definite  end.  Appropriate 
thought  is,  above  all,  reasonable  thought.  A  speaker  should 
have  some  real  truth  to  communicate,  and  should  do  it  in 
words  that  convey  some  real  thought  to  the  mind.  This  is 
sometimes  called  "  significance  "  in  style. ^  It  is  hardly  need- 
ful to  dwell  upon  the  point  that  in  a  sermon  there  should  be 
nothing  contrary  to  good  sense.  Reasonable  thinking  is  an 
essential  quality  of  a  sermon.  This  does  not  admit  of  any- 
thing nonsensical,  puerile,  frivolous,  merely  marvellous,  or 
vainly  pedantic.  It  does  not  admit  of  spending  the  precious 
hour  of  preaching  in  trifles  or  insignificant  discussions. 

There  may  be  much  that  is  plain  and  commonplace  in  a 
sermon ;  much  that  has  been  said  before ;  much  that  does 
not  demand  a  great  amount  of  thought  to  invent  or  to  assent 
to;  much,  even,  that  is  "  goodish  "  rather  than  good;  and 
yet  the  reasonable  quality  of  the  sermon  need  not  be  de- 
stroyed or  compromised  ;  the  bread,  if  not  the  finest  of  the 
wheat,  is  still  nourishing  food  to  many  minds ;  but  this  is 
not  saying,  that,  under  any  circumstances,  what  is  absolute- 
ly unsound  or  nonsensical  can  be  allowed.  All  things  must 
come  to  the  test  of  common  sense,  which  is  the  sense  that 
everywhere  prevails,  and  is  established  among  sound-minded 
men. 

(5.)  Consecutive  thought.  There  should  not  only  be 
thought,  and  appropriate  thought,  but  orderly  thought — a  ra- 
tional succession  of  ideas  —  the  avoidance  of  scattering  frag- 
mentary and  disconnected  thoughts.  Whatever  has  any  pre- 
tence to  a  regular  discourse  demands,  at  least,  that  quality ; 
and  this  is  not  denying  that  there  may  be,  at  times,  bold  and 
apparently  unconnected  thoughts,  left  standing  by  themselves, 

'  Day's  Art  of  Discourse,  p.  276. 

26 


302  PREACHING. 

not  nicely  fitted  into  the  frame  of  the  discourse,  and  giving 
energy  and  picturesqueness  to  style,  breaking  up  dull  mo- 
notony. But  there  should  be,  nevertheless,  either  a  natural 
or  a  logical  progress  of  ideas  —  one  sentence  making  addition 
to  another,  one  paragraph  being  developed  from  the  thought 
or  statement  contained  in  the  preceding  paragraph,  one 
division  forming  an  advance  to  the  next. 

There  should  be  a  movement  in  the  discourse,  or  it  should 
be  thought  in  motion,  increasing  in  volume  like  a  river, 
every  word,  sentence,  paragraph,  division,  preparing  for 
"vvhat  follows,  and  all  forming  a  united,  living  current  of 
thouirht.  Short,  broken  sentences :  lone:  and  circuitous 
parentheses,  where  the  idea,  or  another  than  the  main 
idea,  is  carried  off  into  numberless  ramifications ;  practical 
thoughts  interspersed  too  freely  in  pure  argumentation ; 
inconsequential  and  casual  remarks, — these  break  the  on- 
ward current,  which  should  not  for  a  moment  stagnate,  and 
which  should  move,  even  if  it  moves  slowly.  A  spoken  dis- 
course is  not  like  a  scientific  disquisition,  which  may  be  a 
deep  pool  of  contemplation,  rather  than  a  fluent  stream  of 
thought ;  but  a  sermon  should  introduce  thoughts  in  their 
natural  sequence,  and  should  move  on  to  some  definite  end. 
Care  should  be  taken  in  a  sermon  to  bind  it  together,  not 
only  by  consecutiveness  of  thought,  but  by  every  mechani- 
cal help  afforded  by  the  connections  of  the  language  and 
the  structure  of  sentences.  It  is  not  well  to  employ  very 
short  sentences,  or  a  very  sententious  style  ;^  they  are  more 
fitted  to  the  neat  moral  essay  than  the  sacred  discourse  that 
lays  before  us  the  inexhaustible  riches  of  divine  truth. 

(c.)  Individuality  of  thought  and  style.  We  have  spoken 
of  this  in  another  connection.  It  is  that  quality  in  which 
the  man  appears  in  a  style  that  is  perfectly  natural  to  him. 
It  is  a  noble  quality.  It  is  refreshing  to  hear  a  man's  own 
ideas  spoken  in  his  own  way.    The  efl'ect  produced  is  always 

'  Day's  Art  of  Discourse,  p.  281. 


§  25.      STYLE.  303 

greater  when  there  is  a  sense  of  personal  address,  springing 
from  the  speaker's  own  mind  and  feelings,  rather  than  from 
the  thought  and  impulse  of  another  mind.  We  do  not  wish 
to  hear  Chalmers  from  any  but  Chalmers.  We  wish  to  feel 
that  we  are  taken  into  the  confidence  of  the  speaker,  and 
that  we  are  listening  to  the  actnal  ntterances  of  his  heart. 
We  may  be  dazzled  by  the  artificial  speaker,  but  he  cannot 
move  us  as  that  man  can,  who,  with  a  higher  earnestness  of 
purpose,  shoAvs  us  himself,  opens  to  us  his  confidence,  utters 
thoughts  which  he  has  wrought  by  the  toil  of  his  own  mind. 
One  may  increase  his  individuality  of  style,  1.  By  aiming 
at  independent  thought.  He  may  not  aim  at  originalit}^, 
but  he  should  aim  at  saying  what  he  truly  thinks.  We 
call  Thomas  Fuller  an  original  writer,  but  his  originality 
does  not  consist  in  his  saying  things  in  an  odd  way,  but  in 
his  strong,  independent  thinking.  The  very  subject  of  the 
thought  is  his  own,  as  well  as  the  language  in  which  it  is 
expressed.  There  is  no  mistaking  the  characteristic  indi- 
viduality of  his  style.  A  fresh  thought  of  one's  own,  even 
if  he  is  not  what  is  called  a  man  of  genius,  is  worth  ten 
of  another's,  to  give  him  power  as  a  speaker.  One  may 
increase  his  individuality  of  style,  2.  By  employing  the  more 
direct  jJersonal  address  —  by  not  talking  to  the  world,  or  men 
in  general,  but  to  men  before  him.  It  is  one  man  talking 
to  {^nother,  and  not  discoursing  about  indifferent  things. 
Let  there  be  never  so  profound  a  course  of  thought  in  a 
sermon,  yet  the  audience  should  be  made  to  feel  that  it  is 
addressed  to  them  —  to  each  of  them. 

Small  things  sometimes  aid  this.  Luther  liked  "  thees 
andthous"  in  a  sermon.  The  use  of  the  pronoun  "you" 
may  give  the  sermon  all  the  point  needed.  The  individual- 
izing, sometimes,  of  a  member  of  the  audience  as  "my 
brother"  does  this.  A  sudden  grasp  laid  upon  some  par- 
ticular conscience,  an  allusion  to  some  recent  and  real  event, 
some  common  affliction  or  bereavement,  something  which 
brings  the  thought  into  the  present, — this  helps  individu-^ 


304  PREACHING. 

ality  of  style.  Of  course  this  directness  of  address  should 
not  be  overdone,  for  personalities  in  the  pulpit  are  out- 
rao-eous.  But  one  need  not  be  too  much  afraid  of  hurtino: 
people's  feelings  by  a  friendly  and  manly  directness  of 
address  ;  for  the  habit  of  applying  nnpleasant  truth  to  our 
neighbors,  instead  of  to  ourselves,  is  of  familiar  occurrence. 

A  preacher  becomes  more  individual  in  style  who  has  an 
A  individual  in  view ;  for  this  necessarily  narrows  and  shapes 
I  his  thought,  and  gives  it  a  personal  directness.  Even  the 
eye,  the  linger,  the  whole  manner,  should  aid  in  lending 
life  and  point  to  speech.  Modern  sermons  lack  point,  and 
hence  individuality  of  style.  The  essay  style  scrupulously 
avoids  directness ;  and  in  the  essay  style  this  is  a  great 
beauty.  One  may  increase  his  individuality  of  style,  3.  By 
preaching  specific  truth.  Generalities  may  arouse  the 
mind,  but  particulars  search  the  heart.  A  single  apt  fact 
is  more  forcible  than  the  most  eloquent  deduction.  Where 
thus  specifically  preached,  the  truth  acquires  an  edge ;  it 
becomes  indeed  like  "any  two-edged  stvord,  piercing  even 
to  the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and  spirit,  and  of  the  joints 
and  marroiv,  and  is  a  discerner  of  the  thoughts  and  intents 
of  the  hearty 

2.  Those  related  qualities  of  style  which  have  more  par- 
ticular reference  to  their  effect  upon  the  hearer  or  the  audi- 
ence addressed. 

This  second  department  of  the  relative  properties  of  style, 
which  has  reference  to  its  effect  upon  the  mind  addressed, 
and  which  is  objective  in  its  character,  has  been  differently 
classified  by  different  writers  upon  rhetoric.  Thus  Quin- 
tilian  says  that  all  language  has  three  kinds  of  excellence  — 
to  be  correct,  perspicuous,  elegant.^  Whately  sums  up  these 
objective  qualities  of  style  under  the  heads  of  perspicuity, 
energy,  and  elegance;  Professor  H.  N.  Day  considers  them 
to  be  comprised  in  the  properties  of  clearness,  energy,  and 
beauty ;  Vinet  has  a  wider  classification  into  the  qualities 

'  Instit.,  B.  I.,  c.  T.,  1. 


§  25.      STYLE,  305 

of  perspicuity,  purity,  propriety,  precision,  rapidity,  pro- 
portion, order,  popularity,  familiarity,  nobleness,  gravity, 
&c.  Evidently,  some  of  these  last-mentioned  kinds  9iean 
the  same  thing  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  development ; 
and  all  of  them,  perhaps,  might  be  combined  in  the  two 
simple  qualities  of  strength  and  beauty. 

We  would  make  a  somewhat  wider  classification  than  that 
of  Whately,  though  less  extended  than  that  of  Vinet ;  and 
we  would  treat  especially  of  the  qualities  of  Purity^  Pro- 
^priety.  Precision,  Perspicuity ,  Energy ,  Elegance. 

In  regard  to  those  fundamental  properties  of  style,  which, 
by  the  consent  of  ages,  is  fitted  to  instruct  and  sway  the 
minds  of  men,  as  nothing  is  good  in  any  of  its  qualities 
which  is  impure,  or  which  in  its  nature  has  aught  positively 
false  or  corrupt,  we  therefore  begin  with  purity  of  style. 

1.  Purity.  As  in  morals  "first  pure,"  so  in  matters  of 
the  intellect,  of  taste,  and  of  style,  it  is  first  pure,  then 
strong,  clear,  elegant,  or  whatever  is  fit. 

Purity  of  style  is  that  quality  which  does  not  violate  any 
of  the  true  jprincijples  of  language ,  in  respect  offonn,  con- 
struction, or  meaning. 

Purity,  and  the  other  qualities  of  style  which  we  shall 
mention,  belong,  it  is  true,  in  some  sense,  to  those  invaria- 
ble qualities  which  relate  chiefly  to  language  ;  but  they  have 
also  intimate  relations  to  the  audience  addressed,  and  the 
efiect  upon  them.  An  Athenian  audience,  we  are  told, 
could  detect,  and  would  hiss,  a  wrong  accent,  a  mispronun- 
ciation, or  a  barbarism.  A  preacher  who  violates  purity  of 
style  may,  in  like  manner,  in  these  modern  days,  lose  power 
with  intelligent  and  educated  hearers,  and,  more  or  less, 
with  all.  The  preacher  of  the  pure  truth  of  Christianity 
should  aim  at  a  pure  style  ;  and  this  remark  might  even  be 
extended  to  the  general  truth  or  purity  of  the  subject- 
26* 


306  PREACHING. 

matter  discussed  —  that  the  great  laws  of  true  thinking, 
and  of  truth,  should  not  be  violated.  But  more  precisely 
viewed,  purity  of  style  forbids,  (a.)  The  introduction  of 
new  u-ords  into  the  language.  Augustus  Csesar  declared 
himself  unable  to  introduce  a  new  word  into  the  Latin  lan- 
guage. It  is  an  immense  assumption  to  coin  a  word ;  but 
few  can  do  this.  A  discoverer  may  invent  a  new  word  for 
his  discovery ;  a  master  in  any  science  may  coin  a  word, 
when  the  progress  of  science  demands  it ;  writers  of  estab- 
lished eminence  may  sometimes  modestly  propose  new  words, 
merely  by  way  of  suggestion.  New  words  made  by  com- 
pounding old  ones  form  also  a  violation  of  this  principle. 
Our  language  has  not  the  fatal  facility  of  the  German  in 
creating  compound  words.  (b.)  Introduction  of  foreign 
words.  There  is  a  great  danger  in  introducing  German 
words  and  idioms  into  our  preaching  and  theological  lit- 
erature. The  careful  use  of  English  words  and  English 
idioms  is  one  of  the  first  qualities  of  purity.  Americans, 
as  a  nation,  are  peculiarly  imitative  and  assimilative ;  we 
take  all  elements  of  nationality  into  our  wide  civilization ; 
there  should  be,  therefore,  while  we  are  an  English-speaking 
nation,  a  stricter  watch  kept  against  the  corruption  of  the 
lansuaire  from  these  foreio^n  sources.  The  habit  of  intro- 
ducing  French  words  and  phrases  by  half-educated  people 
is  a  weakness  that  should  be  resisted.  There  is  a  pithy 
passage  which  we  will  quote  from  the  writings  of  a  very 
old  English  author  of  the  time  of  Edward  VI.  (Sir  John 
Cheke),  which  is  interesting  from  the  fact  that  this  author 
himself  in  his  day  exerted  considerable  influence  in  prevent- 
ing the  inroad  of  foreign  words  into  the  language,  when  the 
current  was  strong  that  way ;  and  it  also  shows  how  early  a 
jealousy  was  awakened  for  the  preservation  of  the  purity 
of  our  tongue.  He  says,  "Among  other  lessons,  this  should 
first  be  learned,  that  we  never  afi'ect  any  strange  inkhorn 
terms,  but  to  speak  as  is  commonly  received  ;  neither  seek- 
ing to  be  overfine,  nor  yet  living  over  careless ;  using  our 


§  25.      STYLE.  307 

speech  as  most  men  do,  and  ordering  our  wits  as  the  fewest 
have  doen.  Some  seek  so  far  for  outlandish  English  that 
they  forget  altogether  their  mother  language.  And  I  dare 
swear  this :  if  some  of  their  mothers  were  alive,  they  Avere 
not  able  to  tell  what  they  say ;  and  yet  these  fine  English 
clerks  will  say  they  speak  their  mother  tongue,  if  a  man 
should  charge  them  with  counterfeiting  the  king's  English. 
Some  far  journied  gentlemen,  at  their  return  home,  like  as 
they  love  to  go  in  foreign  apparel,  so  they  will  ponder  their 
talk  with  over-sea  language.  He  that  cometh  lately  out  of 
France  will  talk  French-English,  and  never  blush  at  the 
matter.  Another  chops  in  with  English  Italianated,  and 
applieth  the  Italian  phrase  to  our  English  speaking.  The 
unlearned,  or  foolish-fantastical  that  smells  but  of  learning 
(such  fellows  as  have  seen  learned  men  in  their  day),  will 
so  Latin  their  tongues  that  the  simple  cannot  but  wonder  at 
their  talk,  and  think  surely  they  speak  by  some  revelation. 
I  know  them  that  think  rhetoric  to  stand  wholly  upon  dark 
words ;  and  he  that  can  catch  an  inkhorn  term  by  the  tail, 
him  they  account  to  be  a  fine  Englishman  and  a  good  rheto- 
rician." (c.)  Introduction  of  obsolete  words.  The  constant 
use  of  the  Bible  by  ministers  may  sometimes  lead  to  the 
use  of  archaisms.  (^d.)  Introduction  of  cant  words.  A 
homely,  common  word  is  often  effective ;  but  a  decidedly 
cant  expression  —  of  religious  cant  the  worst  of  all  —  can- 
not be  defended.  It  attracts  only  a  low  class  of  minds,  for 
impurities  of  style  are  allied  to  impurities  of  thought ;  and 
we  prefer  to  see  coarseness  anywhere  rather  than  in  the  min- 
ister of  Christ.  The  use  of  profane  words,  though  employed 
only  as  illustrations  or  quotations,  is  to  be  avoided ;  and 
there  may  be  too  much  made  even  of  the  excellent  idea 
that  the  language  of  the  pulpit  should  be  plain  and  common 
language ;  it  should  certainly  be  plain,  but  not  too  familiar, 
not  low.  People  go  to  church  expecting  something  a  little 
higher,  in  point  of  carefulness  and  dignity  of  expression, 
than  slipshod,  every-day  speech.     Sacred  themes  demand 


308  PREACHING. 

elevated  language.  What  little  life  or  power  is  momentarily 
secured  by  the  use  of  low  words  or  phrases  soon  passes  away  ; 
while  of  other  things  more  is  lost  than  gained,  (e.)  Intro- 
duction of  solecisms  ;  e.  g.,  Jonathan  Edwards'  peculiar  philo- 
sophical use  of  the  word  "  necessity  "  has  occasioned  vast 
perplexity  in  theological  science.  (/".)  Introduction  of 
words  or  thoughts  which  violate  manly  simplicity.  The 
giving  way  to  loose  images,  or  a  too  luxuriant  fancy,  or  an 
overwrought  and  unnatural  intensity  of  expression,  destroys 
purity  of  style.  This  fault  may  be  indicated,  rather  than 
fully  described. 

We  should  strive  for  purity  of  style,  because  a  pure  lan- 
guage associates  us  with  our  English  ancestors,  and  with 
Chatham,  Milton,  Hampden,  Spenser,  Bacon,  Shakspeare, 
Chaucer,  Wycliffe,  and,  above  all,  with  the  English  Bible  ; 
and  it  associates  us,  also,  with  the  great  statesmen,  poets, 
writers,  and  preachers  who  speak  the  English  language  now. 
It  contributes,  likewise,  to  the  permanence  of  a  man's  use- 
fulness, especially  of  a  minister's,  who  would  speak  through 
his  pen.  If  a  man  has  not  a  pure  style  of  writing,  his 
thoughts,  however  excellent,  will  not  float  his  style ;  for 
purity  of  style  is  the  beginning  and  indispensable  accom- 
paniment of  every  other  literary  excellence ;  it  is  essential 
to  precision,  elegance,  vigor.  And  the  care  to  preserve 
purity  of  style  is  the  great  safeguard  to  the  constant  ten- 
dency to  debasement  in  language.  In  our  country,  where 
there  is  no  acknowledged  standard  of  language,  where  there 
is  great  difference  of  custom,  variety  of  races,  and  an  unre- 
strained freedom  of  expression,  it  should  be  particularly 
borne  in  mind  by  ministers  that  they,  as  educated  men,  are 
the  guardians  of  the  purity  of  our  tongue,  and  that  there  is 
a  moral  responsibility  connected  with  their  being  so. 

Purity  of  style  may  be  preserved,  — 

(1.)  By  care  to  avoid  at  all  times  the  use  of  loose,  super- 
fluous, and  idle  expressions.  Above  all,  this  should  be 
observed  in  common  conversation.     Conversation  is  a  fine 


§  25.      STYLE.  309 

art.  One  should  study  it.  It  is  a  great  means  of  influence 
to  a  minister.  To  be  free  and  spoutaneous  in  conversation, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  speak  pure  English,  and  to  retain 
the  best  form  of  expression,  is  a  noble  accomplishment. 
Some  ministers  wield  a  greater  influence  by  their  conversa- 
tion than  by  their  preaching ;  for  they  are  some  other  per- 
sons in  preaching,  but  in  conversation  they  are  themselves. 
While,  then,  avoiding  pedantry  and  stifi'  precision,  let  one 
strive  to  use  the  purest  and  most  select  English  in  all  that 
he  says.  Let  him  make  sparing  use  of  contractions.  Let 
him  not  allow  a  low  or  slang  word  to  slip  out ;  for  the  ex- 
pressions one  is  accustomed  to  use  in  conversation  will  surely 
show  themselves  in  the  pulpit,  especially  in  extemporaneous 
discourse.  A  refined  man  is  shown  in  his  conversation  more 
quickly  than  in  any  other  way.  Burnet,  in  the  History  of 
his  own  Times,  says  of  Leighton,  "In  a  free  and  frequent 
conversation  with  him  for  twenty-two  years  I  never  heard 
him  utter  an  idle  word,  or  a  Avord  that  had  not  a  direct  ten- 
dency to  edification." 

(2.)  By  close  familiaritywith  a  few  of  the  p\irest  English 
authors.  Let  one  study  the  style  of  Herbert's  prose,  of 
Goldsmith^  De  Foe,  Izaak  Walton,  Thomas  Hooker,  Robert 
SoutJiey,  Wordswoi'th,  Washington  Irving,  and  William 
Prescott;  and  the  reverse  is  also  true,  viz.,  a  cautious  read- 
ing (so  far  as  regards  their  style)  of  authors  of  doubtful 
purity,  such  as  Carlyle  and  Coleridge's  prose. 

(3.)  By  the  study  of  English  lexicogra])hy .  Of  a  good 
dictionary  one  might  say,  "Turn  it  day  and  night." 

(4. )  By  the  use  of  rhetorical  criticism,  not  only  of  others, 
but  of  one's  own.  One  should  never  use  a  doubtful  word 
without  examination ;  let  him  try  himself  more  unsparingly 
than  any  one  else.  If  one  would  not  wish  to  wear  a  dirty, 
ragged,  and  unbecoming  coat  in  the  public  street,  why 
should  he  not  take  pains  to  make  his  words  fit  his  thoughts 
neatly,  and  set  them  off  fairly,  so  that  his  mind  may  make 
its  best  appearance  in  public  ? 


310  PREACHING. 

(5.)  By  the  critical  study  of  ancient  classic  models.  We 
must  go  to  the  Greek  for  form,  as  we  do  to  the  Latin  for 
dignity  of  style.  Were  there  room,  we  would  quote  on  this 
point  the  whole  of  a  remarkable  letter  of  Lord  Brougham 
to  Zachary  Macaulay,  giving  him  advice  in  regard  to  the 
rhetorical  training  of  his  son,  Thomas  Babington,  bearing 
date,  "Newcastle,  March  10,  1823;"  but  we  must  content 
ourselves  with  a  few  ol"  the  closing  paragraphs  :  "  If  he 
would  be  a  great  orator,  he  must  go  at  once  to  the  foun- 
tain head,  and  be  familiar  with  every  one  of  the  great  ora- 
tions of  Demosthenes.  I  take  for  granted  that  he  knows 
those  of  Cicero  by  heart ;  they  are  very  beautiful,  but  not 
very  useful,  except,  perhaps,  the  Pro  Milone,  Pro  Ligario, 
and  one  or  two  more  ;  but  the  Greek  must  positively  be  the 
model;  and  merely  reading  it,  as  boys  do,  to  know  the  lan- 
guage, won't  do  at  all ;  he  must  enter  into  the  spirit  of  each 
speech,  thoroughly  know  the  positions  of  the  parties,  follow 
each  turn  of  the  argument,  and  make  the  absolutely  perfect 
and  most  chaste  and  severe  composition  familiar  to  his  mind. 
His  taste  will  improve  every  time  he  reads  and  repeats  to 
himself  (for  he  should  have  the  fine  passages  by  heart) ,  and 
he  will  learn  how  much  may  be  done  by  a  skilful  use  of  a 
few  words,  and  a  rigorous  rejection  of  all  superfluities.  In 
this  view  I  hold  a  familiar  knowledge  of  Dante  to  be  next 
to  Demosthenes.  It  is  in  vain  to  say  that  imitations  of 
these  models  won't  do  for  our  times.  First,  I  do  not  coun- 
sel any  imitation,  but  only  an  imbibing  of  the  same  spirit. 
Secondly,  I  know. from  experience  that  nothing  is  half  so 
successful  in  these  times  (bad  though  they  be)  as  what  has 
been  formed  on  the  Greek  models.  I  use  a  very  poor  in- 
stance in  giving  my  own  experience ;  but  I  do  assure  you 
that,  both  in  courts  of  law  and  Parliament,  and  even  to 
mobs,  I  have  never  made  so  much  play  (to  use  a  very  mod- 
ern phrase)  as  when  I  was  almost  translating  from  the 
Greek.  I  composed  the  peroration  of  my  speech  for  the 
queen,  in  the  Lords,  after  reading  and  repeating  Demos- 


§  25.      STYLE.  311 

thenes  for  three  or  four  weeks ;  and  I  composed  it  twenty 
times  over,  at  least;  and  it  certainly  succeeded,  in  a  very 
extraordinary  degree,  and  far  above  any  merits  of  its  own. 
This  leads  me  to  remark  that  though  speaking,  with  writing 
beforehand,  is  very  well  until  the  habit  of  easy  speech  is 
acquired,  yet  after  that  he  can  never  write  too  much ;  this 
is  quite  clear.  It  is  laborious,  no  doubt,  and  it  is  more 
difficult,  beyond  comparison,  than  speaking  off-hand ;  but 
it  is  necessary  to  perfect  oratory,  and,  at  any  rate,  it  is 
necessary  to  acquire  the  habit  of  correct  diction.  But  I 
go  farther,  and  say,  even  to  the  end  of  a  man's  life  he  must 
prepare,  word  for  word,  most  of  his  finer  passages.  Now, 
would  he  be  a  great  orator,  or  no  ?  In  other  words,  would 
he  have  almost  absolute  power  of  doing  good  to  mankind, 
in  a  free  country,  or  no?  So  he  wills  this,  he  must  follow 
these  rules." 

2.  Propriety.  This  is  so  nearly  related  to  purity  on  the 
one  hand,  and  to  precision  on  the  other,  that  we  need  not 
dwell  upon  it.  Propriety  is  the  emjployment  of  words  accord- 
ing to  the  best  usage,  in  a  becoming  way,  and  not  in  some 
false  and  unusual  manner.  Dean  Swift's  definition  of  style 
is  one  chiefly  of  this  quality  of  propriety,  viz.,  "the  right 
words  in  the  right  places."  Bruj'ere,  quoted  by  Vinet, 
says,  "Among  all  the  different  expressions  which  may  ren- 
der one  and  the  same  thought,  only  one  is  good ;  we  do  not 
always  fkll  in  with  it  in  speaking  or  in  writing.  It  never- 
theless exists,  and  every  other  except  that  is  feeble ;  and  a 
man  of  mind,  who  wishes  to  be  understood,  can  be  satisfied 
only  with  that."  ^  The  just  expression  is  the  forcible  one  ; 
it  is  the  expression  that  exactly  fits  the  idea,  whereas  no 
other  expression  does  exactly  suit  the  idea.  An  impropri- 
ety of  style  is  committed,  not  only  when  good  English 
words,  or  words  proper  enough  in  themselves,  do  not  make 
good  sense,  because  they  are  employed  out  of  place,  or  in 

'  Homiletics,  p.  378. 


312  PREACHING. 

t 

some  unusual  manner ;  but  even  when  they  are  used  loosely, 
carelessly,  confusedly,  and,  as  has  been  said,  so  as  to  leave 
some  gap  between  the  expression  and  the  thought.  Some- 
times the  strikingly  improper  use  of  a  single  word  or  phrase 
destroys  much  of  the  force  of  a  good  sermon.  The  best 
writers  are  distinguished  for  their  thoughtful  yet  easy  pro- 
priety of  language,  their  aptness  or  fitness  of  expression. 
Their  thought  and  language  are  identical.  You  feel,  in  read- 
ing or  hearing  them,  that  the  idea  makes  just  its  proper 
impression  ;  that  they  do  not  strike  wide  of  the  mark,  but 
hit  the  centre. 

3.  Precision.  Precision  in  style,  as  applied  to  the  lan- 
guage of  a  discourse,  is  that  quality  by  which  the  writer's 
idea  is  exactly  expressed  —  no  more  and  no  less :  as  applied 
to  the  subject  of  a  discourse,  it  is  that  quality  which  pre- 
vents one  from  saying  anything  superfluous,  or  not  saying 
enough  entirely  to  convey  the  idea.  Propriety  is  fitness  of 
language ;  precision  is  exactness  of  language.  Precision 
requires  that  the  thought  be  accurately  expressed ;  that  it 
be  completely  brought  out,  but  without  unnecessary  words, 
without  slovenliness  of  expression.  It  is  an  important  qual- 
ity in  giving  strength  and  rapid  movement  to  style.  It  may 
be  violated,  — 

(a.)  By  a  want  of  nice  perception  in  the  essential  differ- 
ences of  words.  As  there  are  a  great  many  words  nearly 
similar,  but  not  the  same,  the  precise  writer  is  shown  by  his 
clearly  marking  those  shades  of  diflference  ;  as  in  the  terms 
"atonement"  and  "redemption,"  "regeneration"  and  "con- 
version," "mercy"  and  "grace,"  "charity"  and  "benevo- 
lence," "soul"  and  "spirit,"  "immortality"  and  "eternal  life." 

(6.)  By  a  deficiency  of  words.  We  may  use  too  few  as 
well  as  too  many  words  for  precision  ;  and  this  is  an  especial 
source  of  obscurity  in  writers  who  use  a  condensed  style. 
We  must  sometimes  repeat  words,  to  be  accurate.  The  omis- 
sion of  words  needed  to  complete  a  sentence  is  a  common 


§  25.      STYLE.  313 

fault,  the  writers  thinking  that  their  meaning  is  sufficiently 
clear;  as,  "His  was  the  tongue  to  speak,  his  the  arm." 
"Precision"  means  "cutting  around,"  or  "cutting  before" 
—  "making  accurate  limits;"  and  while  it  tends  to  concise- 
ness, it  is  still  not  precisely  conciseness,  which  is  rather 
"cutting  short,"  or  "  cutting  off."  "Conciseness,"  says  Vinet, 
"  is  distinguished  by  an  economy  of  words  greater  than  the 
object  of  precision  requires ;  for  precision  only  suppresses 
what  is  decidedly  superfluous,  and  would  spare  the  mind 
a  fatigue,  that  which  springs  from  the  necessity  which  an 
author  puts  upon  us  of  condensing  the  thought,  or  reducing 
it  to  a  few  elements.  Conciseness,  stopping  short  of  what 
is  necessary  to  complete  expression,  is  not  designed,  doubt- 
less, to  fatigue  the  mind,  but  it  gives  it  labor,  and  thus  it 
enters  into  the  category  of  those  procedures  or  figures  of 
which  we  have  before  spoken.  It  is  an  ellipsis,  not  of 
words,  but  of  thoughts.  Taking  it  as  a  figure,  or,  at  least, 
as  a  particular  force  of  style,  it  can  hardly  constitute  the 
form  of  an  entire  composition,  especially  that  of  a  sermon. 
It  is  too  apt  to  produce  obscurity ;  it  approaches  to  affecta- 
tion and  the  epigrammatic  style.  It  is  often  but  the  false 
semblance  of  precision,  and  nothing  is  easier  than  to  have 
at  the  same  time  much  conciseness  and  very  little  precision ; 
for  it  is  possible  to  be  at  the  same  time  parsimonious  and 
prodigal,  and,  with  all  this  affectation  of  strictness,  to  leave 
only  vague  ideas  in  the  mind  of  the  reader  or  hearer."  * 

(c. )  By  a  verbal  diffuseness.  Precision  is  also  sometimes 
lost  in  too  great  expansion,  as  well  as  condensation,  of  style. 
Where  too  many  words  are  used,  when  the  texture  of  the 
style  wants  fibre,  when  it  is  loose  and  diffuse,  the  lan- 
guage is  no  longer  an  instrument  of  expressing  accurate 
thought.  Writers  who  have  an  easy  command  of  words,  a 
native  facility  of  expression,  are  greatly  tempted  to  accu- 
mulate words  about  the  thought,  so  as  to  hide  or  overload 

'  Homiletics,  p.  382. 

27 


314  PREACHING. 

it.  Even  so  brilliant  a  writer  as  De  Quincey  errs  iu  this 
way.  Such  a  style  is  especially  faulty  in  a  sermon.  What 
may  be  called  a  learned  diffuseness,  entering  wearisomely 
into  the  exposition  of  what  may  be,  after  all,  secondary 
matters, — is  particularly  out  of  place  in  a  discourse  that 
is  to  operate  directly  pn  the  conscience  and  the  will.  Pre- 
cision of  style  is  especially  opposed  to  needless  repetitions, 
pleonasms,  and  expressions  that  add  nothing  to  the  thought. 
There  may  be,  at  times,  a  certain  rhetorical  redundancy 
which  is  the  genuine  expression  of  eloquent  feeling,  a  heap- 
ing up  of  epithets  in  the  warmth  of  onward  discourse,  which 
looks  like  careless  profusion ;  but  there  should  not  be  pro- 
lixity. An  idea  should  not  lose  itself  in  a  vague  sea  of 
words.  There  cannot  be  much  expansion  in  earnest  ora- 
tory ;  it  must  sweep  on  to  the  end.  Perhaps  there  is  no 
one  thing  in  which  young  writers,  and  we  may  say  preach- 
ers, so  often  fail  as  in  condensation. 

(cZ.)  By  disregarding  the  distinction  between  the  literal 
and  the  figurative  use  of  ivords.  The  accurate  use  of 
religious  and  theological  terms  which  are  founded  upon 
figures  of  speech,  and  of  the  metaphorical  etymology  of 
important  words,  such  as  "righteousness,"  "depravity," 
"virtue,"  "holiness,"  &c.,  would  be  desirable;  and  gen- 
erally the  figurative  language  of  Scripture  should  be  used 
with  accuracy.  This  language  has  a  meaning,  and  often 
a  more  intense  meaning  than  literal  language  can  express ; 
and  it  may  be  so  profoundly  true  that  common  language 
breaks  down  with  the  weicrht  of  the  thought  or  the  truth 
to  be  conveyed,  and  it  seeks  the  figurative  form,  the  wings 
of  the  imagination,  to  bear  it  up.  Nevertheless,  figurative 
language,  even  if  it  occurs  in  Scripture,  should  not  be  used 
as  if  it  were  the  language  of  prosaic  literaluess,  or  cold, 
logical  statement. 

(e.)  By  want  of  precision  of  thought.  This  is,  doubtless, 
the  chief  source  of  want  of  precision  of  style.  Vague  ex- 
pression often  gets  the  credit   of  profound  thought;    but 


§  25.      STYLE.  315 

more  often  it  is  vague  because  the  thinking  is  not  accurate 
nor  profound.  There  is  a  great  temptation  for  a  writer 
or  speaker  to  express  a  half  idea  before  he  has  thought  it 
through,  or  detached  it  cleanly  from  all  other  ideas.  Loose 
thinking  and  loose  writing  go  together. 

Let  us  now  look  at  some  of  the  benefits  of  precision  of 
style.  It  conduces  to  the  vigor  of  our  mental  habits ;  it 
promotes  cleanness  and  clearness  of  thought ;  every  idea  is 
thoughtfully  separated  from  every  other  idea ;  nothing  ex- 
traneous is  left  clinging  to  it ;  the  style  acquires  almost  the 
force  and  condensation  of  proverbs.  We  see  this  sometimes 
in  Coleridge,  notwithstanding  |his  marked  faults  of  style 
in  other  respects.  "Men  should  be  weighed,  not  counted." 
"The  most  deceitful  are  the  most  suspectful."  Such  pre- 
cise, weighty  phrases  now  and  then  occur  between  his  long 
and  obscure  sentences,  like  lumps  of  shining  gold. 

There  is  nothing  that  the  popular  mind  so  delights  in 
as  in  this  quality  of  precision,  for  it  sees  in  the  speaker  a 
power  which  it  does  not  itself  possess.  Precision,  too, 
marks  the  difference  between  a  true  and  a  spurious  style. 
A  true  style  has  genuine  ideas,  and  expresses  them  so  that 
they  cannot  be  misunderstood ;  whereas  a  mock  style  has 
no  true  ideas,  and  makes  up  the  deficiency  in  vague  and 
grandiloquent  phrases.  In  religious  discourse  this  is  par- 
ticularly hurtful.  Better  have  the  simplest  and  most  com- 
mon thoughts,  clearly  expressed,  than  what  Carlyle  calls 
"phosphorescent  punk  and  nothingness."  Precision  is  pecu- 
liarly the  style  of  science,  but  it  need  not  for  that  reason 
be  a  learned,  nor,  above  all,  a  pedantic,  style. 

The  means  of  acquiring  precision  of  style  are,  briefly, 
(1.)  Think  precisely.  Bishop  Butler,  in  the  preface  to  his 
Sermons,  says,  "  Confusion  and  perplexity  are,  in  writing, 
indeed  without  excuse,  because  any  one  may,  if  he  pleases, 
know  whether  he  understands  or  sees  through  what  he  is 
about ;  and  it  is  unpardonable  in  a  man  to  lay  his  thoughts 
before  others  when  he  is  conscious' that  he  himself  does  not 


316  PBEACHING. 

know  whereabouts  he  is,  or  how  the  matter  before  hhn 
stands.  It  is  coming  abroad  in  disorder,  which  he  ought  to 
be  dissatisfied  to  find  himself  in  at  home.-'  Before  writing, 
one  should  know  exactly  what  he  intends  to  say.  (2.)  Think 
on  abstruse  subjects.  Now  and  then  the  metal  of  the  mind 
should  be  tried  on  the  most  difficult  themes  ;  and  one  should 
not  always  choose  easy  themes,  or  treat  any  theme  easily. 
(^3.)  Make  use  of  precise  language  in  ordinary  conversation 
and  writing.  We  may  experience  a  sense  of  great  poverty 
of  language  at  first ;  but  language  is  a  special  study,  and 
the  constant  use  of  a  good  book  of  synonymes  may  aid  us. 
(4.)  Study  the  style  of  Bishop  Hall,  Lord  Jeffrey,  Arch- 
bishop Whately,  and,  in  many  respects,  Robert  South,  who 
used  language  accurately,  and  made  close  discriminations, 
except  when  in  a  passion. 

Precision  of  style  should  not  degenerate  into  stifi'ness 
or  pedantry,  and  thus  spoil  the  ease  and  flow  of  nature. 
Harms,  quoted  by  Tholuck,  says,  "Let  the  preacher  speak 
negligently  and  incorrectly."  It  is  better  to  do  even  that 
than  to  lose  all  life  and  freedom  in  an  over-fastidious  atten- 
tion to  precise  correctness  of  language ;  so  that,  perhaps, 
what  Cicero  calls  "  a  diligent  negligence  "  —  one  which 
unites  correctness  with  freedom  —  will  best  describe  the 
true  style. 

4.  Perspicuity.  This  is  "  something  which  can  be  looked 
through"  like  glass ;  it  is  that  quality  which  enables  the  hearer 
to  comprehend  at  once,  to  see  through,  the  idea  intended  to  be 
conveyed.  Its  opposite  is  obscureness.  It  is  considered  by 
Vinet  to  be  the  first  quality  of  style  —  an  opinion  founded 
on  the  words  of  Quintilian,  ^^JSTobis  prima  sit  virtus  perspi- 
cuitas."     Perspicuity  may  be  violated,  — 

(1.)  In  relation  to  the  idea  itself.  It  may  not  be  a  true, 
a  rational  idea,  although  at  first  sight  seeming  to  be  one ; 
or  it  may  be  a  true  idea  obscurely  exj)ressed ;  or  it  may  be 
a  truly  profound  idea,  difficult  to  be  expressed  and  compre- 


§  25.      STYLE.  317 

bended,  from  its  real  depth.  It  has  been  pronounced  the 
greatest  effort  of  genius  to  make  abstract  ideas  plain.  The 
preacher  should  not  strive  to  be  so  plain  as  to  become  m- 
sipid ;  and  there  is  often  obscurity  in  the  truth  itself,  for 
mystery  is  a  source  of  power.  A  stream  may  be  very  clear 
and  very  shallow.  Thus  it  is  that  the  preacher  of  the  infi- 
nite truths  of  the  gospel  cannot  always  make  himself  under- 
stood by  every  one  in  his  congregation,  though  that  cer- 
tainly should  be  his  aim.  He  should  study  his  congregation 
in  that  respect,  and  should  strive  to  put  himself  in  the 
place  of  his  hearer.  His  style  should  be  "just  high  enough 
to    raise    his    audience,    and   just    low    enough    to    reach 

them." 

(2.)  In  relation  to  the  language  in  which  the  idea  ts  con- 
veyed.     This  refers  especially  to  the  distinction  between 
figurative  and  literal  language,  the  neglect  of  which,  as  has 
been  suggested  in  another  relation,  is  one  of  the  most  fruit- 
ful sources  of  obscurity.      True  imagery,   discreetly  em- 
ployed, may  be  made  the  means  of  clearness  of  style,  for 
the  imagination  is  an  illumining  power,  and  the  ability  to 
use  appropriate  imagery  in  the  pulpit  is  often  the  ability  to 
flash  light  into  the  obscurest  depths  of  a  theme.     It  is  the 
imaginSion  playing  in  upon  the  argument,  or  the  imagina- 
tion" coming  with  her  torch  to  help  the  reason  in  the  search 
for  truth ;  °but   the  imagination  may,  through  a  confusion 
of  images,  destroy  perspicuity.    It  breaks,  as  it  were,  the 
mirror  at  which  we  look,  into  many  fragments,  giving  back 
only  confusing  reflections. 

The  means  of  attaining  perspicuity  of  style  are,  — 
(a.)  A  careful  attention  to  the  use  of  single  words. 
1.  Connectives.  The  words  which  form  the  mechanical 
structure  of  a  sentence  should  be  short,  plain  words. 
The  proper  use  of  adverbs  and  pronouns,  in  relation  to 
the  words  they  agree  with,  is  to  be  carefully  attended  to ; 
for  little  words  contribute  more  to  perspicuity  than  the 
larger ;  they  are,  as  it  were,  the  pins  and  joints  which  bind 
27* 


318  PREACHING. 

a  sentence  together,  or  on  which  it  turns  and  moves.  Here 
care  should  be  bestowed.  2.  Words  with  a  plurality  of 
meanings.  These  should  be  nsed  only  in  such  connections 
as  to  exclude  all  but  the  meaning  intended.^  Such  words 
as  "assumption,"  "broad,"  "sense,"  "turn,"  "well,"  "flat," 
"ravel,"  "mean,"  "particular,"  "scale,"  and  hundreds  of 
others  that  might  be  mentioned,  which  have  two  or  more 
senses,  should  be  so  used  as  to  avoid  ambiguous  meanings. 
In  like  manner  the  same  word  should  not  be  nsed  at  a  short 
interval  of  separation  in  diSerent  senses.  And,  as  coming 
nnder  the  same  general  principle,  words  should  be  used  in 
their  most  common  and  best-understood  senses.  Here  the 
principle  of  propriety  or  fitness  in  the  use  of  language  aids 
perspicuity. 

(b.)  Attention  to  the  relations  of  qualifying  phrases  to 
each  other.  When  carelessly  collocated,  or  too  widely  sep- 
arated, the  most  absurd  meanings  are  oftentimes  produced. 

(c.)  The  avoiding,  as  much  as  possible,  of  the  extremes 
of  ellipsis  and  parenthesis.  All  involved  sentences,  though 
not  all  long  sentences,  are  to  be  avoided,  if  we  would  seek 
perspicuity. 

(cZ.)  Care  not  to  change  the  construction  of  the  sentence  too 
abruptly,  so  as  to  lose  sight  of  the  subject  or  the  object. 
This  is  a  frequent  cause  of  ambiguity.  Especially  in  making 
comparisons  and  antitheses,  one  should  avoid  the  use  of  dis- 
similar constructions  in  setting  forth  agreements  and  differ- 
ences.^  A  well-balanced  comparison  conduces  to  perspicu- 
ity of  style. 

(e.)  Attention  to  the  harmonious  construction  of  sen- 
tences. (See  remarks  of  Bulwer  Lytton,  in  his  Caxtonia, 
Essay  Vni.,  on  "Rhythm  in  Prose,  as  conducive  to  Pre- 
cision and  Clearness.") 

(y. )  The  avoiding  of  too  learned  and  scientific  phrase- 
ology.    Were  every  sermon  a  concio  ad  clerum,  this  might 

'  Bain's  Ehetoric.  *  Idem. 


§  25.       STYLE. 


319 


be  a  merit  of  style,  because  it  would  be  addressed  to  an 
audience  that  could  understand  it;    it  would  be  to  them 
perspicuous  ;  but  the  preacher  who  talks  too  much  of  "moral 
necessity,"  "cognitive  faculties,"  "volition,"  "objective"  and 
"subjective,"  and  the  like,  does  not  preach  like  Him  who, 
even  in  his  parables,  wherein  he  purposely  hid  the  truth 
from  the  unspiritual,  used  simple  language.     We  should 
indeed  be  thought  lunatics,  should  we  preach  like  the  open- 
ing sentence  of  Dr.  Thomas  Browne's  Essay  on  Christian 
Morals :  "  Tread  softly  and  circumspectly  in  this  funambu- 
latory  track  and  narrow  path  of  goodness ;  pursue  virtue 
virtuously  ;  leaven  not  good  actions,  nor  render  virtues  dis- 
putable.    Stain  not  fair  acts  with  foul  intentions  ;  maim  not 
uprightness  by  halting  concomitances,  nor  circumstantially 
deprave  substantial  goodness." 

The  writings  of  Hume,  Dr.  Emmons,  and  ArchhisJiop 
Whately  are  good  models  of  perspicuity ;  and  of  a  certain 
beautiful  lucidness  of  style,  of  what  the  French  call  dartS, 
which  the  imagination  makes  by  bodying  forth  its  ideas  m 
forms  that  shine  in  noonday  light,  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress is  an  eminent  illustration. 

5.  Energy.  This  is  sometimes  called  "strength,"  some- 
times "force,"  sometimes  "effect,"  sometimes  "nerve,"  and 
sometimes  "vividness"  of  style;  but  the  old  Aristotelian 
word  ^Eviq-i^a  exprcsscs  it  best.  It  is,  without  doubt,  the 
most  important  quality  of  style,  without  which  all  the  others 
are  of  little  account.  If  the  preacher  of  God's  salvation 
shows  no  energy  in  his  speech,  he  had  better  hold  the  plough 
or  stand  behind  the  counter  all  his  life. 

Energy  is  that  quality  which  gives  a  sense  of  power  m 
the  speaker  and  in  the  truth  which  he  speaks,  and  thus  forces 
attention  to  the  subject  in  hand,  and  stmnps  it  upon  the  mind 
of  the  hearer.  The  great  source  of  energy  of  style  is  energy 
of  feeling  and  energy  of  thought.  Strong  thought  makes 
a  strong  style.     Energy  is,  above  all,  a  subjective  quality. 


320  PREACHING. 

It  is  the  product  of  a  vigorous  and  well-trained  mind.  And 
the  state  of  the  mind  at  the  time  of  writing  is  an  important 
consideration — the  interest  felt  in  the  subject,  the  vivid 
conception  of  the  theme,  and  the  strength  of  purpose  and 
of  aim.  As  we  have  said,  strong  thought  will  make  a 
strong  style.  A  trumpet  blast  cannot  come  out  of  a  reed, 
even  though,  as  Pascal  says,  it  is  "a  reed  that  thinks." 
There  must  be  the  energy  of  soul  before  energy  of  expres- 
sion. Yet,  although  there  must  be  this  original  force  of 
mind  for  great  energy  of  style,  there  are  certain  legitimate 
rhetorical  helps  to  the  production  of  that  great  and  noble 
quality. 

The  means  of  attaining  energy  of  style  may  be  divided 
into  two:  1.  The  fit  use  of  words.  2.  The  figurative  use 
of  tvords. 

1.  The  fit  use  of  ivords.  Generally  speaking,  this  is 
an  observance  of  all  the  other  properties  of  language  and 
style  which  have  been  mentioned,  fusing  them  together  by 
the  heat  and  power  of  a  strong  purpose ;  but,  more  defini- 
tively, it  consists  of  three  particulars  —  the  hindi  number, 
and  arrangement  of  words  in  sentences. 

( 1 . )  Kind  or  choice  of  words. 

(a.)  The  use  of  short  Saxon  words.  The  energy  of  Car- 
lyle's  style  arises  chiefly  from  his  use  of  rugged  Saxon 
words,  some  of  them  so  old  as  to  be  new.  Macaulay  also 
often  exemplifies  this  :  "  You  must  dig  deep  if  you  would 
build  high."  Herbert  Spencer,  in  his  Essay  on  Style,  has 
some  interesting  remarks  on  the  use  of  Saxon  words,  as 
economizing  strength  and  time,  thus  adding  force,  or,  as  his 
expression  is,  "economizing  the  recipient's  attention."  In 
fact,  the  great  source  of  povver  in  style,  according  to  Spen- 
cer, is  economy  of  words.     (Essays,  pp.  12-15.) 

(p.)  The  use  of  specific  instead  of  generic  words.  The 
latter  may  be  often  necessary,  but  the  former  give  vivid- 
ness. Dr.  Campbell  says,  "The  more  general  the  terms 
are,  the  picture  is  fainter ;  the  more  special  they  are,  the 


§  25.       STYLE.  321 

brighter."  "Konie  fell"  is  more  forcible  than  "The  Roraau 
empire  came  to  an  end."  "The  beauty  that  was  Greece, 
and  the  grandeur  that  was  Rome,"  might  be  generalized  and 
weakened.  The  use  of  specific  instead  of  abstract  words 
saves  the  hearer  the  delay  of  thinking  what  the  abstract 
term  signifies,  and  thus  conduces  to  rapidity  and  energy 
of  impression.  As  a  general  maxim  of  style,  therefore, 
concrete  words  are  better  than  abstract. 

(c.)  The  use  of  words  whose  sound  corresponds  to  their 
sense,  thus  giving  a  more  vivid  force,  and  helpiag  the  hearer 
to  catch  the  thought  through  the  sense  as  well  as  through 
the  reason. 

(d.)  The  use  of  common  and  natural,  instead  of  techni- 
cal, words.  The  theological  style  contains  stereotyped  words 
and  phrases  which  diminish  energy  and  promote  dulness, 
because  they  sound  too  familiar  to  some  persons  and  too 
abstruse  to  others.  Religious  ideas,  ideas  clothed  in  fi'esh, 
simple,  and  natural  words,  seem  like  new  truth,  and  have 
great  power  and  attraction  for  the  popular  mind.  Any  sug- 
gestion of  the  artificial  indicates  weakness.  Thus  too  much 
antithesis  tends  to  produce  a  cold  style.  You  hear  the  first 
statement,  which  is  put  into  an  antithetic  fo^m,  and  you 
wait  in  a  critical  state  of  mind  to  hear  the  corresponding 
sentence.  It  is  a  purely  intellectual  process.  Macaulay's 
style  may  dazzle  the  mind,  but  it  does  not  often  touch  the 
heart ;  for  men  are  jealous  of  the  appearance  of  art. 

(2.)  The  number  of  words. 

It  is  a  general  principle  that  brevity  gives  strength.  "/S'i 
gravis,  brevis."  The  utmost  conciseness  consistent  with 
clearness  promotes  energy.  Too  many  connectives,  exple- 
tives, and  qualificatives  weaken  style  ;  those  are  better  fitted 
for  a  descriptive  than  an  oratorical  style.  "The  orator," 
says  Quintilian,  "  cannot  use  goldsmith's  scales."  ^ 

'  See  a  suggestive  passage  in  Sir  E.  Bulwer  Lytton's  Caxtonia,  p.  94,  on 
the  proper  style  for  the  orator,  in  contradistinction  from  that  of  the  writer  or 
essayist.     The  remarks  will  apply  with  increased  force  to  the  pulpit  orator. 


322  PREACHING. 

To  have,  or  to  seem  to  have,  a  fine  command  of  language 
—  "a  flow  of  words"  —  is  the  temptation  of  young  writers ; 
but  after  a  thought  is  once  suflSciently  expressed,  everything 
added  weakens  the  sentence,  though  there  may  be  a  little 
more  of  diffuseness  allowed  in  oral  than  in  written  language. 
Conciseness  is  viohited  by  all  tautological  and  circumlocu- 
tory phrases.  Sentences  should  be  recast,  until  those  enfee- 
bling redundancies  disappear.  And  the  same  may  be  said  in 
regard  to  thoughts.  "  In  the  choice  of  competent  ideas,  or 
in  the  choice  of  expressions,  the  aim  must  be  to  convey  the 
greatest  amount  of  thoughts  with  the  smallest  quantity  of 
words."  ^ 

(3.)  The  arrangement  of  words. 

This  is  an  important  point  in  respect  of  energy  of  style. 
The  Greek  and  Latin  languages,  through  the  variety  of  their 
inflections,  are  remarkable  for  the  energy  attained  by  the 
simple  arrangement  of  words  in  sentences.  That  is  often 
a  key  to  their  significance. 

The  forcible  arrangement  of  a  sentence  is  promoted,  — 

(«.)  By  a  regard  to  the  preservation  of  its  unity.  How- 
ever manifold  the  form  of  the  parts,  there  should  be  no 
doubt,  from. the  clear  arrangement  of  the  sentence,  what 
is  the  main  idea,  what  is  the  unifying  thought.  That  is  not 
to  be  broken  up;  for  "nothing  broken,"  it  has  been  well 
said,  "can  be  projected  with  the  force  of  a  whole  body." 

(6.)  By  the  periodic  structure  of  the  sentence.  A  peri- 
odic structure  is  one  in  which  the  important  thought  or 
word  of  the  sentence  is  reserved  for  its  close.  It  is  opposed 
to  a  loose  construction,  in  which  the  sentence  ends  in  a 
straggling  way,  or  with  one  or  more  dependent  clauses. 
Whately's  definition  of  a  periodic  sentence  is,  "A  period  is 
a  complex  sentence  in  which  the  meaning  remains  suspended 
till  the  whole  is  finished."  The  idea  is,  that  the  sentence 
should  end  with  a  blow  which  clinches  the  whole,  and  binds 
it  forcibly  together.     That  is  conducive,  also,  to  the  clear 

>  Herbert  Spencer's  Essays,  p.  35. 


§  25.      STYLE.  323 

and  forcible  delivery  of  a  sentence,  leaving  nothing  frag- 
mentary, nothing  to  be  gathered  up  by  the  voice  ;  it  is,  in 
homely  phrase,  pulling  up  with  little  or  no  decrease  of  mo- 
mentum. Sometimes  a  sentence  may  be  made  to  have  a 
periodic  structure  by  simply  reversing  the  order  of  its 
clauses.  As  a  general  rule,  the  weakest  words  and  clauses 
should  come  in  the  middle,  the  strongest  at  the  begin- 
ning, but,  above  all,  at  the  close.  The  general  statement 
should  precede  the  particular,  the  less  striking  that  which 
is  more  so,  the  less  concentrated  and  intense  that  which  is 
more  so.  On  this  subject  of  the  arrangement  of  words  in 
a  sentence,  and  of  thoughts  in  style,  see  Herbert  Spencer's 
Essay,  p.  16. 

(c.)  By  the  use  of  a  direct  mode  of  expression.  In  a 
direct  style,  the  adjective  comes  before  the  substantive,  the 
predicate  before  the  subject,  the  qualificative  before  the 
qualified  part  of  the  sentence.  Oratory  should  go  straight 
to  the  point.  It  demands  the  avoidance  of  a  form  of  sen- 
tence where  the  mind  is  held  long  in  suspense.  It  is  better 
to  break  up  the  thought  into  short  sentences,  and  to  ap- 
proach the  meaning  by  a  series  of  approximations.  Where 
there  is,  however,  in  one  sentence,  a  great  number  of  pre- 
liminaries to  be  attended  to  before  the  main  subject  or  idea 
is  arrived  at,  or  when  the  sentence  is  quite  complex,  one 
should  judiciously  mingle  the  two,  bringing  in  the  main 
idea  before  the  close  of  the  sentence,  but  yet  after  the 
mention  of  several  preliminaries.  This  is  mingling  the 
direct  and  indirect  styles.  In  oratory,  one  should  not 
fetigue  attention,  or  strain  the  mind  of  the  hearer  to  too 
great  an  effort  to  catch  the  meaning  of  the  speaker.  The 
thought  and  the  expression  should  be  as  near  together  and 
as  direct  as  possible ;  for  oratory  does  not  allow  tediously 
circuitous  phrases,  but  is  bold,  direct,  impetuous,  massive, 
brief. 

(cZ.)  By  a  judicious  use  of  antithesis.  Tacitus  among 
the  ancients,  and  Macaulay  among  modern  writers,  are  mas- 


324  PREACHING. 

ters  of  antithesis.  The  antithetical  arrangement  of  a  sen- 
tence gives  a  more  vivid  view  of  the  subjects  contrasted. 
It  shows  difierent  sides,  and  they  reflect  light  on  one  an- 
other. The  relaxed  attention  in  regard  to  one  side  of  the 
antithesis  gives  the  mind  renewed  power  to  view  and  appre- 
ciate the  other  side.*  There  may  be  an  affected  antithesis, 
which,  with  all  its  brilliancy,  soon  palls,  as  in  most  of  the 
modern  French  writers.  In  fact,  variety  in  writing,  alter- 
nations of  light  and  shade,  new  combinations  of  words, 
contrasted  ideas,  the  picturesque  and  bold  breaking  up  of 
sentences,  and  all  means  of  averting  dulness  and  monot- 
ony, increase  the  force  of  style.  Surprise  is  an  element  of 
strength  as  well  as  beauty. 

(e.)  By  the  use  of  the  climax.  Sentences  should  not 
decrease  in  strength,  although  sometimes  a  long  paragraph 
may  have  a  softening  or  a  letting  down  toward  the  close ; 
but  in  a  categorical  succession,  the  strongest  word  and  the 
strongest  thought  should  come  last.  Yet  sometimes  a  primi- 
tive force  is  added  to  an  old  word  that  has  lost  its  original 
value,  by  using  it  climactically ;  as  in  a  sentence  of  Daniel 
Webster's  address  on  Washington  :  "  He  was  a  great,  a  good, 
a  resjpectable  man."  Nature  itself  dictates  the  climax ;  the 
storm  gradually  rises  to  its  full  strength.  Cicero  among 
the  ancients,  liobert  Hall  among  the  moderns,  make  a  fine 
use  of  the  climax.  By  too  frequent  and  uniform  a  use  of 
the  climax,  however,  the  style  loses  power ;  and  it  is  only 
at  considerable  intervals  that  the  fullest  effect  of  the  climax 
can  be  realized. 

2.  By  the  imaginative  or  uncommon  use  of  ivords.  We 
have  discussed  the  fit  use  of  words ;  we  will  now  glance  at 
the  imaginative  use  of  words,  for  the  promotion  of  strength 
of  style.  The  use  of  figurative  language,  we  have  seen, 
may  often  increase  perspicuity ;  its  judicious  use  may  even 
in  a  greater  degree  promote  energy  of  style,  by  taking 

'  Vinet's  Homiletics,  p.  390. 


§  25.     STYLE.  325 

words  and  thoughts  out  of  their  common,  plain,  and  logical 
forms,  and  holding  them  up  in  the  living  aspects  which  the 
imagination  imparts  to  them.  The  imagination  is  awaked 
by  feeling.  Its  presence,  therefore,  when  natural  and  free, 
implies  a  certain  living  energy ;  it  fills  words  with  a  new 
sense.  Imaginative  energy  of  language,  rhetorically  con- 
sidered, may  express  itself,  — 

(1.)  In'  the  trope.  A  trope  is  when  there  is  some  unmis- 
takable resemblance  between  the  thing  and  what  it  signifies  ; 
as  "  sword  "  for  "  war."  There  is  no  mistaking  the  essential 
identity  of  the  two.  Resemblance  is,  indeed,  the  general 
principle  which  runs  through  and  governs  all  figurative  lan- 
guage. The  trope  is  the  simplest  kind  of  figure.  Many 
single  words,  thus  used  tropically  at  first,  have  lost  their 
figurative  sense,  and  thereby  their  first  energy;  but  such 
tropical  words  as  "  firmament,"  "  imagination,"  "  melancholy," 
"express,"  "detect,"  "bridles"  (as  a  verb),  "fine-spun," 
"rivet"  (as  a  verb),  "insult"  (to  leap  on  a  fallen  foe), 
were  very  forcible  at  first.  Words  may  be  also  used  figu- 
ratively in  a  less  direct  and  simple  sense,  as  in  sj'necdoche 
and  metonymy,  by  which  often  great  eflfectiveness  is  pro- 
duced. They  help  to  give  a  rapid,  picturesque,  distinct 
impression,  bringing  in  the  eye,  the  sense,  to  aid  the  under- 
standing, and  thus  economizing  time. 

(2.)  In  the  metapho7\  A  metaphor  is  where  there  is  a 
resemblance  or  similarity  in  some  relation  rather  than  prop-, 
erty,  which  presents  to  the  mind  something  analogous  be- 
tween the  object  signified  and  that  which  is  expressed ;  as  in 
the  common  phrase,  "a  mountain  wave."  Whately  prefers, 
as  a  general  rule,  the  use  of  the  metaphor  to  that  of  the 
"simile"  in  oratory,  because  it  has  greater  brevity,  and, 
moreover;  it  permits  the  hearer  to  make  out  the  resemblance 
for  himself,  Avhich  is  pleasing,  and,  at  the  same  time,  it  aids 
rapidity.  His  words  are,  "  All  men  are  more  gratified  at 
catching  the  resemblance  for  themselves  than  in  having  it 
pointed  out  to  them."  If  tliis  is  true,  the  metaphor  should 
28 


326  PREACHING. 

not  be  too  dark  or  obscure,  and  it  should  be  something  natu- 
rally and  immediately  suggested. 

(3.)  In  the  simile,  allegory,  personification,  &c.  The 
simile,  unlike  the  metaphor,  makes  the  object  represented 
the  principal  thing  for  the  time  being ;  it  makes  it  stand  out 
in  its  full  proportions  ;  it  draws  the  resemblance  out  into  all 
its  minute  details  of  analogy  or  identity.  It  is  a  more  elabo- 
rate figure  than  the  metaphor,  and  it  is  needed  when  the  com- 
parison is  one  that  necessarily  has  many  parts,  and  cannot, 
therefore,  be  immediately  suggested  to  the  mind.  As  to  the 
order  in  which  the  language  of  metaphor  and  simile  should 
be  introduced  for  the  highest  effect,  these  figures  should  gen- 
erally precede  the  thing  illustrated  by  them.^  The  figure 
should  come  before  the  introduction  of  the  idea  which  is  set 
forth  by  it.  By  its  light  first  kindled,  the  object  is  thus 
brought  out  more  vividly,  which  is  the  almost  invariable 
order  in  the  Scriptures,  in  the  figurative  language  of  Prov- 
erbs, the  elaborate  types  and  illustrations  of  the  prophecies, 
and,  above  all,  in  the  parables  of  our  Lord,  "^s  the  cold 
of  snow  in  the  tiine  of  harvest,  so  is  a  faithful  messenger  to 
them  that  send  him;  for  he  refresheth  the  soul  of  his  master." 
How  much  this  would  lose,  if  the  order  were  reversed,  to 
read,  "A  faithful  messenger  refresheth  the  soul  of  his  master, 
as  the  cold  of  snow  in  the  time  of  harvest "  !  In  the  order 
of  the  last  sentence,  the  attention  becomes  partly  interested 
in  the  thought  itself  of  the  refreshment  of  a  faithful  'mes- 
senger to  the  soul ;  but  it  is  a  duller  attention  or  interest 
than  if  the  thought  should  come  after  the  striking  simile  or 
metaphor  that  has  just  awakened  an  interest  in  it. 

But  we  cannot  dwell  upon  these  familiar  rhetorical  dis- 
tinctions, or  upon  the  novel  uses  which  imagination  makes 
of  language ;  suflice  it  that  the  imagination  throws  new 
life  into  language  ;  it  brings  distant  objects  face  to  face  ;  it 
searches  out  hidden  resemblances ;  it  makes  the  past  and 

'  Herbert  Spencer'l  Essays,  p.  32. 


§  25.     STYLE.  327 

the  future  stand  before  the  mind  as  a  present  reality.  Dr. 
Chalmers'  imagination  was  shown  not  so  much  in  the  use 
of  figures  as  in  this  general  vivification  of  his  style.  In 
his  illustrations  he  made  use  of  the  simile  rather  than  the 
metaphor,  and  his  illustrations  were  generally  drawn  from 
nature,  or  the  natural  sciences.  There  is  a  noble  and  ex- 
tended simile  given  in  Hauua's  Life  of  Chalmers,  vol.  iii., 
p.  299.  The  simile,  also,  at  the  close  of  the  sermon,  "On 
the  expulsive  Power  of  a  new  Affection,"  is  very  beautiful. 
The  entire  absence  of  all  figurative  energy  of  style  is  a 
marked  defect.  The  imagination  clothes  the  dry  bones  of 
thought  with  flesh  and  blood.  It  is  one  great  source  of 
invention,  and  of  that  freshness  which  is  so  great  a  beauty, 
arid  which  generally  makes  the  difference  between  the  dry 
and  the  interesting  speaker.  "The  Protestant  pulpit  has 
too  much  neglected  imagery  in  style ;  it  has  been  iconoclas- 
tic in  this,  as  in  everything.  It  has  not,  attempted  a  flowery 
style,  the  most  contemptible  of  all ;  it  has  tried  to  set  forth 
thought,  which  is  not  superfluous  for  any,  but  is,  above  all, 
useful  to  the  least  instructed.  But  images  of  speech  fasten 
the  idea  in  the  memory  by  a  golden  nail.  These  must  not 
be  confounded  with  the  loose  and  fallacious  analogies  of  cer- 
tain preachers  who  make  a  reason  of  a  comparison."  ^  The 
imagination  should  supply  an  inward  refining,  purifying, 
organizing,  spiritualizing  light  and  heat,  rather  than  be 
sufiered  to  break  out  into  too  many  startling  figures  of 
speech.  The  style  of  Demosthenes  had  little  of  the  figura- 
tive, but  much  of  this  idealizing  power  of  the  imagination. 
Above  all,  in  speaking,  the  figurative  use  of  language  should 
not  degenerate  into  the  poetical  style  of  writing.  Robert 
Hall  said,  "I  am  tormented  with  the  desire  of  preaching 
better  than  I  can.  I  like  to  see  a  pretty  child  or  pretty 
flower,  but  in  a  sermon  prettiness  is  out  of  place.  To  my 
ear  it  would  be  anything  but  commendation,  should  it  be 

'  Histoire  de  la  Predication  parmi  les  Eeformes,  p.  121. 


328  PREACHING. 

said  to  me,  'You  have  given  a  pretty  sermon.'  If  I  were 
upon  trial  for  my  life,  and  ray  advocate  should  amuse  the 
jury  with  his  tropes  and  figures,  burying  his  argument  be- 
neath a  profusion  of  the  flowers  of  rhetoric,  I  would  say  to 
him,  'Tut,  man,  you  care  more  for  your  vanity  than  for  my 
hanging.  Put  yourself  in  my  place  ;  speak  in  view  of  the 
gallows,  and  you  will  tell  your  story  plainly  and  earnestly.' 
I  have  no  objection  to  a  lady's  winding  a  sword  with  ribbons 
and  studding  it  with  roses  when  she  presents  it  to  her  lover ; 
but  in  the  day  of  battle  he  will  tear  away  the  ornaments, 
and  use  the  naked  edge  to  the  enemy." 

If  one  does  use  figures,  let  them  be,  1.  One's  own,  and 
fresh.  2.  JSfot  far-fetched.  3.  Common,  but  not  trite  or 
vulgar.  4.  Strong,  chaste,  manly,  natural,  not  fine  and 
elaborate;  they  should  not  be  drawn  from  anything  artifi- 
cial, like  dress  or  upholstery.^  5.  Suited  to  the  nature  of 
the  subject.  6.  One.  figure  to  one  subject,  and  not  the  mix- 
ture of  two  or  more  figures  in  the  same  sentence,  or  very 
near  together. 

Nature  and  the  natural  sciences  afibrd  the  richest  field  for 
illustrations.     It  would  be  indeed  desirable  to  have  more 
/of  the  fresh  influences  of  nature  in  our  arid  sermons,  more 
of  the  breath  of  blossoming  clover  fields,  more  of  the  rus- 
;  tling  of  autumn  corn,  more  of  cheery,  blessed  sunshine,  of 
/    singing  of  birds,  even  of  the  dash  of  the  stormy  sea,  lifting 
up  its  hoarse  anthem.      This  would  be,  we  believe,  true 
praise  to  Christ,  by  and  through  whom  all  these  glorious 
things  were  made,  and  who,  when  he  walked  the    earth, 
•  communed  with  God  in  nature  as  well  as  in  spirit.      As 
a  general  rule,  young  writers  and  preachers  need  not  be 
urged  to  the  use  of  figurative  language,  but  rather,  per- 
haps, restrained  from  it ;  yet  it  is  better  to  be  in  exuber- 
ance in  a  young  writer  than  to  be  absent  altogether ;  for  it 
may  be  trained  into  an  element  of  strength. 

'  Quintilian's  Instit.,  B.  VIII.,  c.  3,  s.  5. 


§  25.     STYLE.  329 

A  word  might  be  said  upon  pathos,  which  is  a  true  though 
mild  form  of  energy  of  style,  and  which  is  partly  the  product 
of  the  imagination,  and  partly  of  the  feelings,  and  without 
which  a  sermon  is  often  powerless.  Modern  preaching  — 
hiofhlv  intellectual  and  brilliant — too  often  lacks  tenderness  ; 
and  perhaps  it  is  true  that  "  a  high  civilization  supersedes 
the  more  primitive  emotions."  Pathos  springs  from  tender 
feeling,  or  from  a  suggestion  that  awakes  tender  feeling. 
It  is  produced  by  bringing  up  objects  that  excite  our  com- 
passion, pity,  love  —  that  touch  the  springs  of  feeling. 

The  theorj^  of  a  modern  essayist  is  an  interesting  one  — 
that  some  touch  of  the  past  which  imagination  brings  up  is 
always  needed  for  pathos ;  some  comparison  between  former 
happiness  and  present  pain.  The  office  of  pathos  is  cer- 
tainly to  overpower  the  degrading  sense  of  petty  personal 
cares  and  of  present  momentary  annoyances,  with  the  blend- 
ing of  thoughts  of  greater  power  and  depth.  Something 
of  the  irrevocable  —  of  loss  which  cannot  be  restored  — 
enters  into  all  pathos,  and  sets  the  sorrows  and  vexations 
of  the  hour  at  their  right  level ;  and  even  a  slight  severance, 
if  it  be  forever,  —  when  it  is  said  of  a  little  rivulet, 

"No  more  by  thee  my  steps  shall  be, 
Forever  and  forever,"  — 

that  is  enough  for  pathos.  The  smallest  act  performed  for 
the  last  time  awakes  the  pathetic  sense. ^  Pathos,  whether 
treating  of  the  past  or  the  present,  is  a  sudden  and  timely 
utterance,  which  gives  vent  to  the  feelings,  and  a  relief  to 
sad  thoughts  ;  and  tears,  if  they  spring  from  an  inner  foun- 
tain, sometimes  refresh  and  do  good  to  a  hardened  heart. 
This  power  can  be  cultivated  in  the  preacher  only  by  keep- 
ing his  own  heart  open,  his  sympathies  warm  and  free  ;  by 
not  suffering  the  emotional  part  of  his  nature  to  be  frozen 
up  by  the  keen,  cold  breath  of  the  intellect,  or  by  the  hard 

'  Essays  on  Social  Subjects,  from  Saturday  Review. 
28* 


330  PREACHING. 

realities  of  life.  Scotch  preachers,  rugged  as  their  style 
often  is,  are  pathetic  preachers,  because  their  hearts  are 
warm.  Pathos  always  speaks  in  simple  language  —  the 
language  of  nature  and  of  children  ;  a  natural  metaphor, 
a  homely  illustration,  a  story  related  in  the  plainest  Avay,  is 
enough  often  to  touch  the  deep  spring  of  feeling  in  the 
heart.  The  greatest  natures  have  generally  the  most  power 
of  pathos.  Luther's  illustration  of  faith  by  the  little  bird 
singing  on  the  spray,  under  the  great  arch  of  heaven,  Avith- 
out  care,  because  his  heavenly  Father  feedeth  him,  is  but 
a  reproduction  of  the  affecting  beauty  of  our  Saviour's  own 
words.  The  pathetic  may  not  be  often  drawn  upon,  cer- 
tainly not  in  one  sermon,  or  there  is  thus  a  waste  of  feeling, 
and  a  greater  difficulty  in  its  reproduction ;  and  it  hardly 
need  be  added,  the  attempt  at  pathos,  -where  it  is  not  genu- 
ine, is  ever  a  failure,  and  deserves  to  be. 

In  concluding  these  comments  upon  energy  of  style,  we 
would  say,  that  after  the  best  rules  have  been  given,  there  is 
something  deeper  still  in  the  man  himself;  and  energy  is  no 
factitious  acquirement,  but  is  the  result  of  the  action  of  all 
the  powers  of  the  nature  set  in  motion  by  what  Dr.  Brown 
would  call  that  tI  deQf.i6v  —  that  "fiery  particle" — that  original 
energy  of  soul  which  is  beyond  and  beneath  all.  Pericles, 
chiefly  from  this  quality,  was  called  "the  Olympian."  His 
general  style  is  described  by  critics  as  harsh  and  abrupt, 
"seeming  like  one  who  dealt  thunderbolts  from  the  clouds." 
Thucydides  says  of  him,  "He  controlled  the  multitude  with 
an  independent  spirit,  and  was  not  led  by  them  so  much 
as  himself  led  them;  for  he  did  not  say  anything  to  humor 
them,  but  was  able,  by  the  strength  of  his  character,  to  con- 
tradict them,  even  at  the  risk  of  their  displeasure.  When- 
ever, for  instance,  he  perceived  them  unreasonable,  or  inso- 
lently confident,  by  his  language  he  would  dash  them  down 
to  alarm  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  when  they  were  unrea- 
sonably alarmed,  he  would  raise  them  again  to  confidence." 
Thus  his  force  was  in  himself,  rather  than  in  what  he  said. 


§  25.      STYLE.  331 

His  celebrated  "funeral  oration"  is,  however,  from  the  nature 
of  the  theme,  more  free  from  this  abruptness  than  his  other 
addresses  to  the  people,  and  has  more  of  order  and  unity. 
Energy  in  a  speaker  comes  from  a  strong  will,  acting  on  a 
strong  intellect,  when  both  of  them  are  moved  by  a  strong 
emotion.  "No  man  can  be  a  great  preacher  without  great 
feeling."  ^     All  comes  at  last  to  this  :  — 

"Gefahlistalles.'"* 

It  is  said  of  John  "Wesley,  a  man  of  iron  self-control ;  of 
calm,  even  cold,  temperament ;  that  sometimes,  in  preach- 
ing, his  heart  was  mightily  stirred,  and  then  the  myriads 
before  him  felt  a  power  that  bowed  them.  He  says  of  him- 
self, on  one  occasion,  "In  the  midst  of  a  mob  I  called  for  a 
chair  ;  the  sounds  were  hushed,  and  all  was  calm  and  still ;  my 
heart  was  filled  with  love,  my  eyes  with  tears,  and  my  mouth 
with  arguments.  They  were  amazed,  they  were  ashamed, 
they  were  melted  down,  they  devoured  every  word."^ 

But  how  is  this  profound  spiritual  emotion  excited  ?  We 
answer,  by  some  real  belief,  some  strong  and  all-absorbing 
realization  of  the  object  under  discussion,  and  which  makes 
it  a  living  truth  to  the  mind.  Therefore,  for  one  to  be  au 
energetic  preacher,  he  must  be  a  man  of  strong  faith  —  of 
faith  which  fills  him  and  moves  him  more  than  any  present 
object  of  mind  or  sense.  Confidence  in  the  truth  awakens 
energy,  passion,  imagination,  all  the  great  forces  of  the  soul. 
The  love  of  Christ,  the  intense  realization  of  the  truth  of 
the  cross,  of  the  work  of  redeeming  love  which  Christ 
wrought  by  his  sufierings  and  death  for  the  world,  and  the 
need  which  every  man  has  of  this  salvation  of  the  cross, 
gave  Paul  his  energy.  That  constrained  him  to  speak  and 
to  act.  Zeal  for  the  righteousness  of  God,  and  wrath  against 
those  who  pervert  the  truth,  inspired  Luther  with  energy, 

'  Alexander  on  Preaching,  p.  32.  ^  Faust. 

^  Stevens,  History  of  Methodism,  v.  ii.,  p.  383. 


332  PREACHING. 

"Luther  used  to  assign  a  veiy  characteristic  and  unique 
cause  for  the  effectiveness  of  his  sermons  and  writing.  I 
have  no  better  work,  he  said,  than  anger  (^zorn)  and  zeal ; 
for  if  I  wish  to  compose,  or  write,  or  pray,  or  preach  well, 
I  must  be  angry  (zornig).  Then  all  the  blood  in  my  veins 
is  stirred,  my  understanding  is  sharpened,  and  all  dismal 
thoughts  and  temptations  are  dissipated.  No  doubt  a  noble 
moral  indignation  this,  against  all  meanness  and  evil.  But 
even  what  we  usually  call  temper  often  gives  great  energy. 
Swift's  rage  was  malignant;  Luther's,  noble.  Something 
personal  —  even  literary  egotism,  as  in  Gibbon,  or  some 
individuality,  as  in  Hawthorne — promotes  energy  of  style. "^ 

Baxter  said  he  preached  as  "  a  dying  man  to  dying  men  ;  " 
but  there  was  probably  no  sign  of  dying  or  failing  strength 
in  such  preaching.  It  was  full  of  life  and  power.  He  was 
possessed  by  the  truth,  and  that  made  him  powerful. 

What  a  preacher  South  would  have  been  if  he  had  had 
the  spirituality  and  Christ-like  earnestness  of  Baxter  !  Sau- 
rin  was  a  preacher  of  great  energy  of  style.  He  abounds 
in  interrogations,  in  passionate  address,  in  bold  and  fiery 
passages  that  seem  to  flame  out  of  his  heart.  Dr.  Beecher's 
style  was  a  noble  example  of  energy ;  this  is  illustrated  in 
his  famous  temperance  sermons. 

After  all  that  has  been  said,  let  it  not  be  supposed  that  any 
mere  rhetorical  art  can  produce  real  energy  of  style — above 
all,  in  the  preacher.  To  hold  the  truth,  as  the  truth  holds 
us,  in  entire  and  all-absorbing  mastery — this  alone  will  make 
us  strong  preachers.  Earnestness  is  the  soul  of  eloquence. 
He  who  feels  makes  others  feel.  The  man  who  so  loves 
freedom  that  he  is  willing  to  give  his  life  for  it,  is  the  man 
to  speak  for  the  cause  of  freedom  with  power.  He  casts 
rhetoricians  behind  his  back.  The  preacher  who  is  filled 
with  the  sense  of  the  eternal  truths  which  he  preaches,  so 
that  they  are  as  real  to  him  as  his  life,  and  infinitely  more 

^  London  Spectator,  October  26. 


§  25.     STYLE.  333 

important  —  he  is  the  man  to  reason  of  righteousness  and 
judgment  to  come.  He  who,  though  not  seeing,  yet  believes 
in  the  unseen  Christ,  who  loves  him  more  than  any  other 
object  —  he  is  the  one  to  speak  of  the  love  of  Christ,  so 
that  the  rocky  heart  shall  melt.  Faith,  then,  is  the  chief 
source  of  energy  in  the  Christian  preacher.  He  who  speaks 
because  he  believes,  will  not  deal  in  weak  arguments  or 
flowers  of  rhetoric.  He  has  something  more  earnest  than 
that.  The  great  want  of  modern  preaching  is  not  want  of 
knowledge,  but  want  of  Jire.^ 

John  Bunyan  said,  "It  pleased  me  nothing  to  see  people 
drink  in  opinions,  if  they  seemed  ignorant  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  the  worth  of  their  own  salvation."  ^  That  feeling  fired 
his  preaching,  and  gave  it  its  intense  individualizing  and 
awakening  power. 

6.  Elegance.  Elegance  of  style  is  that  quality  hy  which 
thought  i»  expressed  in  a  way  that  appeals  to  good  taste. 
We  have  spoken  of  it  incidentally  under  the  head  of  the 
principle  of  Taste  in  Preaching.  It  seeks  to  realize  the 
ideal  of  beauty,  and  its  chief  elements  are  propriety,  right 
sentiment,  and  grace. 

It  does  not  altogether  lie  in  the  language,  but  in  the 
thought ;  for  it  is  the  expression  of  a  refined  mind.  Ele- 
gance is  not  inconsistent  with  energy  of  style,  since  the 
beauty  of  the  works  of  nature  often  adds  to,  instead  of 
taking  from,  their  powers.  It  is  a  common  remark  that 
there  is  almost  as  much  beautj^  as  grandeur  in  Niagara. 
True  elegance  is  dispensing  with  all  that  weakens  style, 
with  all  false  ornament,  and  everything  contrary  to  good 
taste.     Demosthenes'  style  was  at  once  elegant  and  strong. 

The  sources  of  elegance  of  style,  and  means  of  its  attain- 
ment, are,  — 

(1.)  Fineness  of  p^erxeption.     This,  of  course,  is,  for  the 

1  Alexander  on  Preaching.  ''  Philip's  Life,  p.  257. 


334  PREACHING. 

most  part,  a  native  gift,  but  may  be  greatly  developed  and 
improved  by  culture.  Such  a  delicate  perception  uncon- 
sciously avoids  all  thoughts  and  expressions  that  offend 
good  taste.  The  highest  degree  of  elegance  comes  from 
the  severest  mental  culture. 

(2.)  A  careful  avoiding  of  false  ornament.  It  is  an 
altogether  false  idea  that  elegance  consists  in  ornament ; 
it  may  sometimes  consist  in  avoiding  it.  It  is,  more  truly 
speaking,  ornament  of  the  right  kind  and  in  the  right  place 
—  the  assemblage  or  union  of  things  that  harmonize.  A 
Corinthian  capital  looks  misplaced  on  a  Doric  column. 
"  Whatever  is  improper  cannot  embellish."  ^  Ornament 
"which  is  inexpressive  and  overloaded,  which  does  not  help, 
but  encumbers,  the  thought,  takes  from  elegance ;  for  no 
ornament  is  good  which  is  not  in  some  way  useful.  The 
ornamental  drapery  of  nature,  even  to  the  smallest  leaf, 
serves  some  genuine  purpose.  We  meet  in  nature  with 
no  senseless  or  useless  things.  Everything  contributes  to 
some  vital  object.  So,  in  style,  ornament  is  not  an  end, 
but  a  means  :  it  imparts  force  to  this  truth ;  it  brings  that 
subject  more  into  the  light ;  it  softens  the  severity  of  that 
line  of  argumentation ;  it  clothes  the  nakedness  of  that  bare 
fact.  It  is  itself  intended  to  suggest  thought  and  to  aid 
thought,  not  merely  to  attract  and  amuse,  and  by  no  means 
to  take  the  place  of  more  solid  qualities  of  style.  The 
elaborate  work  and  ornament  on  a  cannon  may  be  admitted 
to  relieve  the  stern  character  of  the  instrument ;  but  in  war, 
the  best  ornament  is  to  have  the  piece  well  polished  and  in 
good  condition  to  send  the  ball.  In  any  ornament  we  may 
employ,  let  us  ask  ourselves.  Does  this  increase  the  effect 
of  my  sermon  ?  Does  it  aid  the  thought  ?  If  not,  reject  it. 
There  is  no  such  curse  to  a  writer  as  the  desire  oi  fine 
writing.  It  clings  to  one  worse  than  the  robe  of  Nessus,  and 
it  must  be  given  up  at  any  sacrifice.  And,  lastly,  in  relation 
to  ornament,  let  it  always  be  remembered  that  there  must 

'  Quintilian's  Institutes,  B.  VIII.,  c.  iii. 


§  25.     STYLE.  335 

be  strensrth  in  order  to  sustain  ornament ;  there  must  be 
the  brazen  column  to  bear  the  carved  work  and  adornment 
upon  it. 

(3.)  A  careful  choice  of  Jit  words. 

(4.)  Precise  thinking.  Precision  is  a  great  help  to  ele- 
gance of  style,  which  delights  in  shai-jDly-cut  and  clearly- 
detined  lines.  There  may  be  a  certain  sublimity  in  vague 
thqught,  but  elegance  requires  clear  and  distinct  thought. 

(5.)  Methodical  arrangement.  Of  this  faculty  of  method 
a  modern  writer  |hus  speaks:  "The  more  we  examine  the 
higher  orders  of  intellect,  whether  devoted  to  science,  to 
art,  or  even  to  action,  the  more  clearly  we  shall  observe  the 
presence  of  a  faculty  common  to  all  such  orders  of  intellect, 
because  essential  to  completion  in  each  —  a  faculty  which 
seems  so  far  intuitive  or  innate  (ingeninm) ,  that,  though 
study  and  practice  perfect  it,  they  do  not  suffice  to  bestow 
the  faculty  of  grouping  into  order  and  symmetrical  form 
ideas  in  themselves  scattered  and  dissimilar.  This  is  the 
faculty  of  method ;  and  though  every  one  who  possesses  it 
is  not  necessarily  a  great  man,  j^et  every  great  man  must 
jjossess  it  in  a  very  superior  degree,  whether  he  be  a  poet, 
a  philosopher,  a  statesman,  a  general ;  for  every  great  man 
exhibits  the  talent  of  organization  or  construction,  whether 
it  be  manifested  in  a  poem,  a  philosophical  system,  a  policy, 
or  a  strategy.  And  without  method  there  is  no  organiza- 
tion or  construction.  But  in  art,  method  is  less  perceptible 
than  in  science,  and,  in  familiar  language,  usually  receives 
some  other  name.  Nevertheless,  we  include  the  meaning 
when  we  speak  of  the  composition  of  a  pictuie,  the  arrange- 
ment of  an  oration,  the  plan  of  a  poem.  Art  employs 
method  for  the  symmetrical  formation  of  beauty,  as  science 
employs  it  for  logical  exposition  of  truth  ;  but  the  mechan- 
ical process  is,  in  the  last,  ever  kept  visibly  distinct,  while 
in  the  first  it  escapes  from  sight  amid  the  shows  of  color 
and  the  curves  of  grace."  ^ 

'  Caxtonia,  p.  306. 


336  PREACHING. 

(6.)  Harmonious  arrangement.  The  sentences  should 
be  such  as  flow  easily  from  the  tongue  —  such  as  are  eupho- 
nious.    The  ear  must  aid  the  st^le. 

(7.)    TJie  study  of  beauty  in  nature  and  art. 

There  is  a  caution  to  be  observed  in  striving  after  ele- 
gance of  style.  Vinet  remarks,  in  his  Homiletics  (p.  470), 
"  The  preacher,  in  order  to  be  elegant,  must  have  recourse 
to  practice ;  and  another  and  much  greater  efibrt  will  be 
necessary  not  to  appear  so.  Elegance  which  announces 
itself,  elegance  which  shows  itself,  is  unskilful  and  unhappy  ; 
but  chaste  elegance  is  appropriate  to  the  pulpit."  Whately 
also  has  an  admirable  remark  on  this  point  (Rhetoric,  Style, 
chap,  iii.,  part  iii.)  :  "The  safest  rule  is,  never,  during  the 
act  of  composition,  to  study  elegance,  or  thkik  about  it  at 
all.  Let  an  author  study  the  best  models,  mark  their  beau- 
ties of  style,  and  dwell  upon  them,  that  he  may  insensibly 
catch  the  habit  of  expressing  himself  with  elegance ;  and 
when  he  has  completed  any  composition,  he  may  revise  it, 
and  cautiously  alter  any  passage  that  is  awkward  and  harsh, 
as  well  as  those  that  are  feeble  and  obscure ;  but  let  him 
never,  while  tvriting,  think  of  any  beauties  of  style,  but 
content  himself  with  such  as  may  occur  spontaneousl3\ 
He  should  carefully  study  persjpicuity  as  he  goes  along ;  he 
may  also,  though  more  cautiously,  aim  in  like  manner  at 
energy;  but  if  he  is  endeavoring  after  elegance,  he  will 
hardly  fail  to  betray  the  endeavor ;  and  in  proportion 
as  he  does  this,  he  will  be  so  far  from  giving  pleasure  to 
good  judges  that  he  will  offend  more  than  by  the  rudest 
simplicity." 

In  these  classifications  of  style  which  have  been  under 
discussion,  we  have  spoken  of  each  at  the  time  as  valuable ; 
but  they  are  features  of  one  style,  variations  of  one  chord  ; 
for  all  the  good  qualities  of  style  should  appear  in  a  man's 
speaking  —  all  varieties  of  the  thoughtful,  the  euphonious, 
the  pure,  the  precise,  the  perspicuous,  the  energetic,  the 


§  25.       STYLE.  337 

elegant,  the  plain,  the  direct,  the  profound  —  even  as  his 
needs  and  his  feelings  are.  It  is  just  this  noble  variety, 
this  mastery  of  all  the  chords,  which  shows  the  true  orator. 
The  orator  should  indeed  know  all  things ;  but  the  preacher 
should  have  a  wisdom  from  above. 
29 


THE  PASTORAL  OFFICE. 


(339) 


PART    FIRST. 

THE   PASTORAL    OFFICE    IN    ITSELF 
CONSIDERED. 


§  26.     The  Pastoral  Office  founded  in  Mature. 

Pastoral  Theology,  technically  speaking,  is  a  branch 
of  Practical  Theology,  and  it  includes  all  that  the  other 
branches  do  not  teach,  or  all  that  remains  to  be  taught  in 
the  education  of  the  Christian  minister.  In  other  words, 
it  strictly  includes  only  tliose  methods  of  pastoral  labor  and 
instruction  which  are  employed  outside  of  the  study  and 
of  the  pulpit.  It  has  reference  to  all  extra-pulpit  ways  and 
means-,  all  practical  efforts  and  agencies,  of  extending  the 
Christian  faith,  and  of  benefitting  the  souls  of  men. 

We  shall,  however,  take  a  more  comprehensive  view  than 
that  of  pastoral  theology,  and  shall  follow  in  part  Vinet's  plan, 
although  differing  from  it  in  many  important  particulars ; 
indeed,  while  we  would  not  have  the  presumption  to  attempt 
to  make  up  Vinet's  deficiencies,  yet  we  would  endeavor  to 
adapt  him,  in  many  practical  respects,  to  the  w^ants  and 
requirements  of  our  American  ministry ;  for,  in  a  country 
like  ours,  where  the  Christian  faith  has  its  freest  and  fullest 
development,  and  the  separation  of  church  and  state  is  a 
real,  not  theoretical,  reform,  the  Christian  ministry  has 
already  taken  on  among  us  ia  fairer  and  larger  type  than 
it  has  ever  yet  assumed,  or  can  assume,  amid  the  repressive 
influences  of  the  Old  World  civilization. 

29  *  (311) 


342  PASTORAL.   OFFICE. 

Our  method  will  be,  from  the  discussion  of  the  pastoral 
office  itself,  and  its  foundations  in  nature  and  Scripture,  or 
the  absolute  view  of  the  subject,  to  pass  on  to  the  actual 
embodiment  of  the  office  in  the  fit  personal  instrument ; 
and  from  that,  to  discuss  the  pastor's  general  relations  to 
society  and  the  world  around  him  ;  and  from  that,  to  come 
to  his  more  special,  profound,  and  enduring  work  in  the 
cjire  of  souls,  in  the  realm  of  spirit,  and  in  the  extension 
of  Christ^s  eternal  kingdom. 

In  treating  of  the  natural  foundations  of  the  pastoral 
office,  we  would  lay  down  the  principle, — 

1.  That  it  is  an  axiom  of  true  philosophy  that  "God 
makes  his  first  and  fundamental  revelation  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  our  own  minds  ;  "  that  there  is  an  innate  faculty  of 
thought  and  a  moral  consciousness  in  man,  to  which  God 
appeals,  by  awakening  in  him  the  feeling  of  religious  obli- 
gation and  the  desire  of  religious  knowledge :  for  to  know 
truth,  and  the  highest  truth, — that  of  God,  — is  the  deepest 
want  of  the  mind.  There  is,  therefore,  we  reason,  an  a 
priori  element  in  man's  mind,  ivJiich  makes  religious  senti- 
ments and  religious  institutions  fit  and  natural  to  him.  No 
institution,  we  may  safely  affirm,  which  has  continued  for 
centuries,  and  which  is  of  a  universal  character,  and  which, 
above  all,  is  an  institution  divinely  intended  to  continue  to 
the  end  of  time,  can  be  without  a  foundation  in  nature ; 
there  must  be  some  universal  natural  want  which  it  supplies, 
or  some  essential  truth  which  it  stands  for ;  there  must  be 
the  subjective  groundwork  in  the  human  heart,  and  in  human 
nature,  of  the  outward  fact  in  society. 

2.  We  would,  then,  affirm  that  there  is  this  root,  or  basis, 
in  nature  itself,  of  the  pastoral  office;  and  we  would  en- 
deavor to  prove  this  chiefly  by  four  arguments  :  — 

(1.)  As  every  universal  want  of  liumanity,  where  there 
is  a  capacity  to  supply  this  want,  creates  an  office,  in  like 
manner  the  most  universal  want  of  man  —  that  of  religion 


§  26.       PASTORAL    OFFICE    FOUNDED    IN    NATURE.         343 

—  creates  the  office  of  religious  instructor ;  or  perhaps,  more 
strictly,  we  should  say,  is  the  iuevitablo  occasion  for  the 
creation  of  this  office.  Thus  the  necessity  of  public  order 
and  safety,  and  of  the  limitation  of  individual  liberty  for 
the  common  good,  originates  the  office  of  civil  government. 
Some  kind  of  government,  more  or  less  elaborate,  exists 
in  all  communities,  even  the  most  degraded  ;  while  in  nations 
of  more  advanced  civilization,  certain  men  are  devoted  to 
the  function  of  framing  and  administering  the  laws ;  and 
the  more  exclusively  they  are  devoted  to  this  office,  the 
better  rulers  they  are.  In  the  judicial  department  of  gov- 
ernment, especially,  we  are  apt  to  think  men  cannot  be  too 
rigorously  occupied  with  their  high  calling.  The  more  im- 
portant the  government,  and  the  vaster  the  interests  at 
stake,  the  more  entirely  should  rulers  be  absorbed  in  the 
duties  of  their  office.  As  another  illustration  of  this  gen- 
eral principle,  the  natural  demand  for  knowledge,  and  the 
capacity  of  the  human  mind  to  investigate  and  enjoy  scien- 
tific truth,  necessitate  the  existence  of  a  class  of  public 
educators.  The  office  of  educator  is  a  universal  one.  In 
the  semi-civilized  East,  one  may  see  Arab  children  sitting 
in  a  circle,  under  the  shadow  of  some  old  Egyptian  temple, 
undergoing  instruction  from  a  native  pedagogue  who  does 
not  know  that  the  world  goes  round  the  sun ;  but  here  is 
the  exclusive  and  universal  office  of  educator,  as  truly  as 
if  the  man  had  been  an  instructor  in  natural  science  in  any 
European  university.  These  analogies  might  be  multiplied. 
The  world  thus  presents  the  spectacle  of  certain  recognized 
and  fixed  offices  among  men,  which  have  sprung  from  the 
general  wants  of  humanity  and  the  constitution  of  the  mind  ; 
and  with  how  much  greater  force  does  this  principle  apply 
to  the  office  of  the  Christian  ministry,  which  is  not  to  supply 
a  changing  but  a  fixed  necessity,  not  a  temporal  but  an  eter- 
nal want !  The  underlying  idea  of  religion,  which  is  our 
need  of  God,  and  union  with  God,  exists,  even  if  obscured, 
in  all  minds,  enlightened  and  heathen,  and  is  more  wide- 


344  PASTOEAL   OFFICE. 

spread  and  profound  than  any  other.  Sin  only  deepens  it ; 
superstition  and  idolatry  only  bring  it  out  in  a  more  intense 
prominence ;  and  thus  we  find  in  this  natural  religious  in- 
stinct the  universal  demand  for  the  existence  of  a  class  of 
men  who,  by  the  gravity  of  their  lives,  and  their  intelli- 
gence, are  supposed  to  be  capable  of  holding  more  intimate 
communion  with  God,  of  giving  expression  to  divine  truth, 
and  of  instructing  the  people  in  religion.  But  this  is  not 
mere  hypothesis,  as  we  shall  see  in  arguments  that  follow. 

(2.)  A.S  no  true  societi/,  or  community,  can  exist  luitltout 
1.  officers,  2.  rules,  3.  members,  so  the  religious  element 
cannot  develop  itself  into  an  organized  form  in  society  loith- 
out  creating  its  regidar  officers  as  well  as  members.  As  the 
political  element  in  society  naturally  crystallizes  into  a  regu- 
larly constituted  state,  with  its  officers,  laws,  and  citizen- 
ship, so  the  religious  principle  in  society  must  do  the  same 
by  the  working  of  the  same  principle.  This  is  Whately's 
argument,  and  may  be  found  carried  out  fully  in  his  King- 
dom of  Christ,  Essay  II.  Whenever,  therefore,  the  reli- 
gious element  works  at  all  (and  there  is  no  portion  of 
humanity  in  which  it  does  not  do  so,  truly  or  falsely),  it 
must  take  on  some  kind  of  organized  life ;  and  this  organ- 
ized life,  in  order  to  exist  and  operate,  must  have  its  regu- 
lar officers,  or  ministers,  as  well  as  its  rules  and  members. 

(3.)  Wherever  man  is,  or  has  been  found,  something  essen- 
tially corresponding  to  the  office  of  the  Christian  jMSior,  or 
jpermanent  religious  teacher,  has,  in  fact,  been  also  found 
to  exist.  We  find  the  priestly  office  existing  in  the  child- 
hood of  the  race,  and  in  the  earliest  nations — not  to  instance 
it  among  the  Hebrew  people,  because  the  Hebrew  priestly 
office  might  be  considered  as  having  been  positively  insti- 
tuted, but  among  nations  of  a  corresponding  antiquity  — 
the  Chaldean,  Egyptian,  Persian,  and  Greek.  These  ancient 
priests  and  prophets  were  teachers  of  divine  things,  if  false 
teachers  ;  and  we  have  reason  to  think  that  the  more  enlight- 
ened Egyptian  priesthood  really  possessed  some  faint  con- 


§  26.       PASTORAL   OFFICE    FOUNDED   IN   NATURE.        345 

ceptions  of  higher  truth  conceroing  the  unity  of  God's 
nature,  which  constituted  their  mysteries.  The  sacerdotal 
class  of  heathen  antiquity  also  presided  over  the  sacrificial 
rites  ;  and  here  we  find  another  root  in  nature  for  the  minis- 
terial office,  since  the  idea  of  sacrifice  is  a  natural  and  uni- 
versal idea  of  humanity,  springing  from  the  perturbation 
and  want  which  sin  occasions.  This  same  profound  idea 
of  sacrifice  is  what  the  Christian  ministry,  in  purer  spiritual 
symbols,  and  in  its  true  significance,  chiefly  waits  upon  and 
sets  forth.  Even  the  Druidic  priest  of  our  own  English 
ancestors,  dealing  in  human  sacrifices,  may  have  had  dis- 
torted glimpses  of  the  spirituality  of  God ;  for  no  idols  are 
found  at  Stonehenge,  or  generally  throughout  the  land  of 
the  old  Celtic  culius.  At  the  present  day,  all  existing  nations 
have  also  their  regular  religious  officers  and  teachers.  Even 
in  Central  Africa,  the  blood-besmeared  "  fetich-priest,"  de- 
scribed by  Dr.  Livingstone,  corresponds  (as  a  putrefying 
body  does  with  a  living  one)  to  the  true  religious  leader 
and  instructor;  and,  as  a  general  rule,  even  these  cunning 
and  bloody  men  are  supposed  to  be  the  dupes  of  their  deceit- 
ful arts,  and  to  believe  in  their  own  ferocious  religions.  But 
we  need  not  confine  the  argument  to  heathens  and  savages, 
for  all  men,  even  the  most  highly  civilized  and  educated, 
will  have,  and  do  have,  their  religious  instructors,  whether 
true  or  false ;  for  the  need  is  in  man  to  seek  for  an  expres- 
sion of  the  great  thoughts  of  the  soul  and  of  divine  truths. 
It  is,  therefore,  true  that  in  the  most  cultivated  sceptical 
circles  a  few  minds  guide  and  rule  the  rest,  as  "  living  ora- 
cles," from  which  there  is  no  dissent.  They  are  the  chosen 
ministers  of  spiritual  things,  called  to  this  perilous  position 
by  preeminent  intellectual  gifts,  and  they  have  large  and 
devoted  flocks  of  immortal  souls. 

(4.)  There  is  sometlting  in  the  nature  and  gifts  of  certain 
men,  instinctively  recognized  by  the  j)eople,  which  constitutes 
them  pastors  —  noifiivag  hmv.  Hero-worship,  though  often 
indiscriminating  and  blasphemously  exaggerated,  and  degen- 


346  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

erating,  in  fact,  into  a  kind  of  devil-worsliip  of  force,  has 
a  germ  of  truth  in  it ;  for  it  is  the  method  of  God,  fight 
against  it  as  we  may,  that  some  minds  are  made  to  be  lead- 
ers, and  the  history  of  the  world  is,  in  a  great  measure,  the 
popular  development  and  assimilation  of  the  thoughts  of 
such  minds,  that  are  acted  upon  by  higher  influences ;  for 
such  minds  are  more  susceptible  to  such  impulses ;  they 
form  centres  or  depositories  of  that  supernatural  energy 
which  is  imparted  and  carried  out  in  great  popular  move- 
ments, reformations,  and  changes.  In  the  reliijious  world 
Nature  herself  may,  in  some  sense,  be  said  to  consecrate 
certain  men  for  the  office  of  spiritual  rulers  and  guides  — 
such  as  Luther,  Wycliffe,  John  Robinson,  John  Wesley, 
and,  in  a  still  higher  sense,  Moses,  Samuel,  Ezra,  Elias, 
John  the  Baptist,  and  the  apostle  Paul.  Such  men  needed 
no  crook  to  show  that  they  were  shepherds  of  the  people ; 
the  people  recognized  them,  and  willingly  followed  them, 
and  could  not  help  doing  so.  Nature  points  out  the  true 
pastor  of  the  people  by  certain  indisputable  signs  :  first  of 
all,  by  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  the  willingness  to  lay 
down  his  life  for  the  sheep  ;  also  by  the  power  of  sympa- 
thy, which  few  men  manifest  in  any  large  degree  ;  and  yet 
again,  by  a  kingly  love  of  truth  and  moral  earnestness. 
Such  qualities,  bespeaking  a  natural  fitness  for  the  pastoral 
office,  show  that  some  men  are  marked  by  nature  and  chosen 
by  God  to  be  the  religious  instructors  of  their  fellow-men  ; 
and  "one  man,"  says  Chrysostom,  "inspired  with  holy  zeal, 
sufficeth  to  amend  an  entii-e  people."^ 

There  may  be,  it  is  true,  objections  raised  to  the  view 
•which  we  have  endeavored  to  establish  :  — 

1.  The  levelling  tendencies  of  the  age,  or  of  coming  ages, 
will  do  away  with  the  ministerial  office.  Thus  Vinet  says 
that  Herder  thought  that  the  ministerial  office  would  at 

^  Neander's  Life  of  Chrysostom,  Eng.  ed.,  p.  119'. 


§  26.      PASTORAL   OrriCE    FOUNDED   IN  NATURE.        347 

some  time  be  done  away ;  but  it  Avas  from  a  very  diJfferent 
reason.^  Herder's  idea  was,  that  in  the  growing  and  greater 
general  light  of  the  advancing  kingdom  of  truth,  the  office 
of  truth-bearer,  or  light-giver,  would  be  gradually  absorbed 
and  lost ;  but  that  this  cannot  be  so,  and  also  that  the  level- 
ling tendencies  of  the  age  cannot  do  away  with  the  ministry, 
may  be  inferred  from  three  reasons:  («.)  As  man  is  bo7'n 
ignorant,  with  no  innate  knowledge  of  God,  though  with 
an  intellectual  and  moral  constitution  exquisitely  fitted  to 
receive  this  truth,  he  must  continue  to  have  instruction 
in  divine  truth,  (b.)  As  man  is  a  siiiful  being,  and  will 
continue  to  be  so,  he  must  continue  to  have  guides  to  holi- 
ness, (c.)  And  to  advance  a  step  beyond  nature,  and  take 
in,  also,  an  idea  of  revealed  truth,  or  of  the  gospel,  so 
long  as  the  present  economy  of  nature  and  grace  remains 
unchanged,  and  man  continues  to  be  a  being  icJio  needs  to 
be  saved  by  the  redemjption  of  Christ,  no  man,  to  the  end 
of  time,  can  be  brought  back  to  God  and  saved  Avithout  the 
instrumentality,  directly  or  indirectly,  of  divine  truth  upon 
his  heart. 

2.  Among  the  truly  enlightened  and  good  there  is  no  longer 
any  need  of  the  minister,  who  is  needed  only  for  the  igno- 
rant, dark-minded,  and  wicked;  but  every  good  man's  own 
heart  is  his  temple,  and  his  own  conscience  his  minister.  The 
objector  here  altogether  loses  sight  of  the  great  fact  that  man 
is  a  social  being,  and  bound  up  with  a  race  in  the  same  nat- 
ural and  spiritual  economy  ;  that  his  perfection,  or  his  high- 
est perfection,  is  in  union  with  the  perfection  of  common 
humanity,  and  that  no  man  can  individually  possess  the 
perfect  truth ;  he  needs  the  aid  and  wisdom  of  his  fellow- 
man  to  whom  may  be  granted  more  light  in  spiritual  things. 
That  is  the  natural  way  appointed  for  man  to  come  to  the 
truth,  and  to  widen  his  own  sphere  of  truth,  through  the 
help  and  sympathy  of  his  fellow-man — the  truth  thus  glan- 

1  Pastoral  Theology,  p.  41. 


348  PASTOEAL   OFFICE. 

cing  from  mind  to  mind,  or  being  concentrated,  like  mag- 
netic centres,  in  some  chosen  minds.  In  short,  no  man 
can  secede  from  the  race,  or  from  the  church ;  he  must  be 
willing  to  sit  down  at  a  common  table,  and  feed  upon  a 
common  bread  of  life.  ^''One  Lord,  one  faith,  one  haptism, 
one  God  and  Father  of  all,  rvho  is  above  all,  and  through 
all,  and  in  you  all,"  is  a  truth  of  nature  as  well  as  of  reve- 
lation. We  therefore  hold  that  the  office  of  the  religious 
minister  will  never  give  way  to  the  encroachments  or  changes 
of  time  ;  and  that  men  may  level  the  hills,  but  they  cannot 
build  railroads  to  heaven ;  that  the  pastoral  office  is  as 
much  a  natural  institution  in  the  moral  and  spiritual  world 
as  a  mountain  which  supplies  the  plains  with  moisture 
and  streams  is  in  the  physical  world ;  that  human  nature 
responds  to  the  divine  command,  ^"Separate  me  Barnabas 
and  Said  for  the  work  unto  which  I  have  called  them;  "  that 
as  all  men  have  recognized  the  divine  office  in  the  past,  they 
will  continue  to  do  so  in  the  future ;  and  it  is  well,  in  these 
times  of  growing  irreverence  for  positive  institutions,  and 
of  the  increased  importance  which  is  given  to  natural  insti- 
tutions and  intuitions,  that  pastors  should  show  to  their 
people  the  natural  foundations  of  the  pastoral  office,  and 
make  them  see  that  if  they  have  not  the  true  religious 
teacher  —  the  "ministry  of  the  word"  of  God  —  they  will 
inevitably  have  the  folse  religious  teacher  —  the  ministry 
of  the  word  of  man.  But  we  have  higher  and  surer  ground 
even  than  this  to  stand  upon. 

§  27.     Divine  Institution  of  Pastoral  Office. 

"Whatever  is  necessitated  or  established  by  nature  is,  in 
a  true  sense,  a  divine  institution ;  but  God  has  also  put  a 
special  stamp  of  positive  divine  institution  upon  the  office 
of  the  Christian  pastor. 

Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  came  into  the  world  to  found  a 
kingdom  of  truth ;  and  after  his  brief  ministerial  life  and 


§  27.      DIVINE   INSTITUTION   OF  PASTORAL   OFFICE.     349 

testifying  death  he  was  to  develop  and  extend  in  the  minds 
of  men  the  truth  he  came  to  establish.  He  planted  the 
germ,  by  his  own  human  life  and  death,  which  was  to  be 
nourished  through  his  spiritual  presence  in  the  world,  after 
he  had  left  it  in  the  body.  The  special  means,  he  taught  us, 
by  which  his  spirit  was  to  operate,  was  through  the  free  and 
affectionate  agency  of  human  instrumentalities  instructed 
by  his  spirit  in  all  truth.  In  this  way  the  church  was  to  be 
saved  from  idolatry,  from  the  superstitious  worship  of  the 
human  person  of  Christ,  and  from  the  worship  of  any  one 
impersonated  form  of  truth,  rather  than  the  spiritual  wor- 
ship of  God ;  for  the  truth  was  to  be  taught  in  many  ways, 
and  through  the  medium  of  various  independent  minds, 
that,  taken  together,  represent  the  common  wants  and  char- 
acteristics of  the  race.  The  Lord  chose,  to  be  the  imme- 
diate depositaries  of  the  truth,  certain  men  out  of  the  mul- 
titudes who  were  attracted  by  his  teachings — men  of  strong 
spiritual  susceptibilities,  though  of  humble  origin,  and  of 
the  greatest  contrasts  of  natural  gifts  and  dispositions  — 
a  little  representative  world. ^  The  Lord  kept  these  ever 
near  him  ;  he  ate,  walked,  and  lived  with  them  ;  he  moulded 
them  into  the  image  of  his  will ;  he  prepared  them  for  their 
work  by  impressing  upon  them  his  own  spirit,  by  train- 
ing them  to  his  methods  of  teaching  truth,  by  making  them, 
in  a  word,  Christ-like  ;  for  the  apostles  were  the  first  Chris- 
tian ministers^  taught  by  Christ  himself.  In  some  respects, 
therefore,  they  are  the  models  for  all  Christian  ministers, 
while  in  other  respects  they  stand  alone  and  unapproach- 
able.     The  apostles,  according  to  the  Saviour's  command, 

'  Mosheim  thinks  that  the  twelve  apostles  had  reference  to  the  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel;  that  the  name  itself  is  Jewish,  and  was  applied  to  the  offi- 
cials or  legates  of  the  high  priest,  who  were  despatched  on  missions  of  im- 
portance, they  thus  signifying  that  Christ  claimed  to  be  the  true  high  priest  of 
the  nation  and  of  men.  The  number  twelve,  however,  as  composing  a  jury, 
and  its  use  in  other  relations,  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  apostles  were 
intended  to  represent  the  popular  mind,  the  "  world,"  in  a  religious  point 
of  view. 

30 


350  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

continued  in  Jerusalem  for  quite  a  long  period  —  Lech- 
ler  says  for  twentj-five  years,  though  other  commentators 
narrow  this  time  down  to  twelve  years.  The  apostles,  at 
all  events,  remained  in  Jerusalem  long  enough  completely 
to  organize  the  Christian  church,  and  to  establish  it  in 
all  its  simple  but  divine  Avays,  ordinances,  and  doctrines, 
preaching  and  performing  the  duties  of  pastors,  as  would 
appear  from  Acts  2  :  42.  The  church  in  Jerusalem  very 
soon  grew  to  the  number  of  five  thousand,  and  doubtless 
continued  to  increase  rapidly ;  though,  suffering  persecu- 
tion, it  was  impossible  that  it  should  continue  to  remain 
one  congregation.  It  was,  undoubtedly,  soon  broken  up 
into  different  congregations,  or  parishes,  which  had  teachers 
and  presbyters  of  the  apostles'  appointment ;  but  the  whole 
body  was  still  presided  over  by  the  apostles.  This  primi- 
tive idea  of  different  church  organizations,  with  different 
pastors,  but  forming  one  church,  founded  upon  the  apostles, 
Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the  chief  corner-stone,  as  it  was 
seen  in. this  primitive  Jerusalem  apostolic  church,  is  a  beau- 
tiful conception  of  the  Christian  church,  which  was  then 
fully  realized,  and  which  carried  out  the  truth  that  will 
finally  be  recognized  and  reestablished,  that  ^^  there  is  one 
body  and  one  Sjpirit."  Let  us,  then,  examine  this  name  or 
function  of  ^^  ajiostle,''^  as  being  the  first  historic  instance  of 
the  divine  office  of  the  Christian  ministry  which  was  posi- 
tively founded  by  Christ  himself;  and  let  us  see  wherein  it 
differs  from  and  agrees  with  the  present  office  of  Christian 
pastor.  Vinet  says  it  is  "  the  soul  that  gives  the  name  ;  " 
and  this  name  of  "apostle,"  as  well  as  other  names  of  the 
ministerial  office,  originally  expressed  some  distinct  idea, 
and  sprang  from  some  real  necessity. 

An6ajolog.  This  is  derived  from  d.noaTiUb),  "to  send  ofi"'* 
or  "send  forth."  In  classic  Greek,  unouToloi  is  applied  to 
"  a  commander  of  a  fleet  ready  to  sail ; "  its  prime  idea  is 
that  of  a  messenger  fully  prepared,  fitted,  charged,  to  go 


§  27.      DIVINE   INSTITUTION   OF   PASTORAL   OFFICE.     351 

on  some  definite  commission,  such  as  the  legate  or  ambassa- 
dor of  a  government.  This  idea  of  definite  "commission" 
is  shown  in  Gal.  2:8. 

The  historic  application  or  significance  of  this  term  in 
Scripture  doubtless  has  reference  to  the  act  of  the  Saviour 
when  he  sent  forth  the  twelve  (Mark  16  :  15)  with  the  charge, 
"(?o  ye  into  all  the  ivoi-ld,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature."  The  apostles  were  specially  fitted  and  commis- 
sioned by  Christ  to  bear  his  message,  and  testify  of  him  to 
the  world.  They  could  do  this,  because  they  had  seen, 
known,  and  been  instructed  by  him.  They  were  his  per- 
sonal and  credible  witnesses  (Luke  24 :  46-48)  :  "'And  said 
unto  them.  Thus  it  is  written,  and  thus  it  behoved  Christ 
to  suffer,  and  to  rise  from  the  dead  the  third  day:  and  that 
repentance  and  remission  of  sins  should  be  preached  in  his 
name,  among  all  nations,  beginning  at  Jerusalem;  and  ye 
are  witnesses  of  these  things."  They  were  not  only  eye- 
witnesses, but  heart-witnesses,  by  having  known  and  loved 
Christ,  so  that  they  could  say  (1  John  1 :  2,  3),  "jPor  the 
life  was  manifested,  and  we  have  seen  it,  and  bear  witness 
and  show  unto  you  that  eternal  life  which  was  with  the  Father, 
and  was  manifested  unto  us.  That  which  we  have  seen  and 
heard  declare  we  unto  you,  that  ye  also  might  have  fellow- 
ship with  us;  and  truly  our  felloiv ship  is  with  the  Father 
and  with  his  /Son  Jesus  Christ." 

They  proclaimed  Christ  from  love,  from  the  deep  appre- 
hension of  their  whole  being,  as  Christ  said  to  them,  a  short 
time  before  his  death  (John  15  :  15,  16),  "Henceforth  I  call 
you  not  servants ;  for  the  servant  knoweth  not  what  his  Lord 
doeth;  but  I  have  called  you  friends;  for  all  things  that  I 
have  heard  of  rtiy  Father,  I  have  made  known  unto  you. 
You  have  not  chosen  me,  but  I  have  chosen  you,  and  ordained 
you,  that  ye  should  go  and  bring  forth  fruit,  and  that  your 
fruit  should  r&main;  that  whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  of  the 
Father  in  my  name,  he  may  give  it  you."  As  Christ's 
friends,  they  had  been  brought  into  fellowship  with  Christ, 


352  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

and  had  looked  not  only  on  his  face,  but  on  his  soul ;  one 
of  them,  at  least,  Had  not  only  leaned  upon  his  breast,  but 
had  imbibed  his  spirit.  Christ's  spiritual  personality  was 
formed  within  them ;  in  John's  Gospel,  especially,  we  have 
the  divine  life  as  it  is  only  manifested  to  the  soul  in  com- 
munion with  the  Redeemer;  and  John's  "Christology" — 
profound,  vitalizing,  containing  the  hidden  germ  of  "  eter- 
nal life" — remains  still  the  deepest  revelation  of  God  to 
any  human  mind.^  They  were  thus  superior  to  all  gain- 
saying on  the  subject  of  Christ  and  his  truth,  for  they  knew 
whereof  they  affirmed,  and  testified  that  they  had  seen. 

The  words  just  quoted  above  from  John  15  were  not 
spoken  to  Judas,  neither  was  the  commission  to  go  forth 
and  preach  the  gospel  spoken  to  him.  His  character  should 
be  studied  by  every  minister ;  for  he  may  also  have  had 
some  native  susceptibility  to  love  what  was  lovable,  and 
he  may  have  loved  Chrjst  at  first  sight  with  impulsive  aflfec- 
tion ;  but  the  world  was  strong  in  him,  and  the  power  of 
Christ's  love  was  not  able  to  draw  him  into  this  higher 
spiritual  fellowship  with  the  Saviour;  he  was  at  heart 
worldly ;  the  root  of  supreme  selfishness  was  not  cut  up 
in  him,  and  he  followed  Christ  not  for  his  Lord's  sake,  but 
for  his  own.  The  example  of  Judas,  one  of  the  twelve  first 
Christian  ministers,  is  a  peculiar  admonition  to  ministers 
that  the  service  of  Christ,  and  daily  contact  with  the  high- 
est truth,  are  not  enough  in  themselves  to  secure  fidelity  to 
the  Master. 

But  let  us  look  at  the  more  specific  application  of  the 
term  "apostle."  Without  entering  into  the  controversies 
respecting  James  and  Jude,  and  other  mooted  points,  the 
name  &n6ajolog  is  strictly  applied  but  to  the  tivelve  apostles, 
or,  more  specifically,  to  the  eleven^  sent  forth  by  Christ  to 
testify  of  him  whom  they  had  personally  seen  and  known. 
These  are  what  Paul  calls  (2  Cor.  11 :  5)  oi  inegXiav  dcnoaioloi; 

'  Hagenbach's  Hist,  of  Doctrines,  v.  i.,  §  18. 


§  27.       DIVINE    INSTITUTION   OF   PASTOEAL   OFFICE.     353 

and  ill  Acts  1 :  26,  oi  SySexa  d7i6aTo).oi.  In  this  sense,  of  course, 
there  were  no  successors  of  the  apostles ;  but  we  find  the 
name  d^nuarolog  applied  also  to  I^aul  by  himself;  and  we 
believe  he  used  it  in  its  original  application.  He  calls  him- 
self (1  Cor.  1 :  1)  xX7]jbg  anoaroXog  —  one  specially  called,  or 
commissioned,  by  Christ;  and  in  Eph.  1 :  1,  (xndaTolo;  "ii^aov 
XQiaiov  didi  Oelrifiaiog  Oeov  —  One  to  whom  Chi'ist  had  specially 
revealed  himself  (at  his  conversion,  at  least),  and  had  indi- 
cated his  will  to  him  as  truly  and  literally  as  to  the  original 
apostles  —  1  Cor.  15  :  8  :  ^^  And  last  of  all  he  was  seen  of 
me  also,  as  of  one  born  out  of  due  time."  He  had  a  claim, 
which  he  strenuously  maintained,  to  be  called  an  original 
apostle,  though  it  is  a  puerile  supposition  that  Paul  was 
chosen  by  Christ  to  fill  Judas's  place,  instead  of  Matthias, 
who  was  chosen  simply  by  the  apostles.  As  to  Matthias,  he 
was  chosen  after  special  prayer  to  Christ,  and,  without  doubt, 
under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  he  also,  of  course, 
had  seen  the  Lord.  But  the  term  "  apostle  "  is  applied,  iu 
two  other  instances,  to  others  than  the  eleven.  In  Acts  14 : 
4  and  14,  Barnabas  and  Paul  are  called  "apostles;"  but 
here,  it  is  probable,  the  greater  contains  the  less.  As  Bar- 
nabas was  appointed  the  helper  of  Paul,  he  naturally  shines 
in  his  light ;  and  Barnabas  himself,  moreover,  had  seen  the 
Lord,  so  that  even  in  the  original  sense  he  had  a  certain 
right  to  be  called  an  "  apostle ; "  and  both  were  solemnly 
set  apart  by  the  elders  of  the  church  of  Antioch,  under  the 
special  command  of  the  Holy  Ghost  (Acts  13  :  2). 

The  remaining  instance  is  iu  Romans  16  :  7,  where  An- 
dronicus  and  Junia  are  called  apostles,  or,  at  least,  this  pas- 
sage may  be  so  interpreted.  If  so,  the  word  is  either  used 
in  a  secondary  sense,  as  "messengers"  or  "servants"  of 
Christ ;  or  these  persons  had  really  acquired  the  right  to 
the  name  from  the  fact  that  they  too  had  seen  the  Lord ; 

for  it  is  said  of  them,  o1  y.ul  ngu  hfiov  yeyovaaiv  iv  Xqiarw.     That, 

undoubtedly,  has  reference  to  those  of  whom  Paul  speaks 
in  1  Cor.  15  :  6  :  ^'  And  he  was  seen  of  above  five  hundred 
30* 


354  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

at  once,  of  whom  the  greater  part  remain  unto  this  jJresent, 
but  some  are  fallen  asleep."  The  term  "apostle,"  therefore, 
we  think,  is  never,  in  its  primary  sense,  specifically  applied 
to  any  but  those  who  had  seen  Christ,  or  who  could  thus 
personally  testify  of  him  and  of  his  resurrection.  This  sim- 
ple fact  would  seem  to  be  decisive  m  regard  to  the  theory 
of  the  apostolical  succession,  which  is  disposed  of  so  con- 
clusively by  Whatel}^  in  his  Kingdom  of  Christ  (Essay  II., 
p.  182)  ;  and  surely,  when  we  have  the  positive  statements 
of  such  learned  churchmen  as  Archbishop  Whately,  and  of 
Bishop  Stillingfleet,  who  declared  that  "  this  succession  is  as 
muddy  as  the  Tiber  itself,"  and  of  Bishop  Hoadly,  who  says, 
"It  hath  not  pleased  God,  in  his  providence,  to  keep  up 
any  proof  of  the  least  probability,  or  moral  possibility,  of 
a  regular,  uninterrupted  succession ;  but  there  is  a  great 
appearance,  and,  humanly  speaking,  a  certainty,  to  the  con- 
trary, that  the  succession  hath  often  been  interrupted,"  — 
we  need  not  enter  into  further  reasoning  upon  that  point. 
"  Irresrularities  throusfh  such  a  Ions:  stretch  of  time  could 

o  o  o 

not  have  been  prevented  without  a  miracle  ;  and,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  there  are  many  such  recorded."  ^ 

The  fallacy  of  the  theory  is  in  making  the  succession  indi- 
vidual, instead  of  general.  The  fact  of  a  body  of  Christian 
ministers'  continuously  existing  from  the  time  of  the  apos- 
tles to  the  present  day,  or  of  the  church's  always  having 
and  recognizing  its  own  ministers,  who,  in  an  important 
sense,  derive  their  succession  from  the  apostles  by  possess- 
ing their  spirit  and  teaching  the  truth  they  taught,  —  this  is 
an  undeniable  and  valuable  fact;  but  that  any  one  minister 
of  this  series,  let  him  be  called  "bishop,"  or  simple  "pas- 
tor," has  had  an  unbroken  descent,  by  successive  ordina- 
tions, from  the  apostles,  —  this  is  too  great  an  assertion  ;  it 
cannot  possibly  be  sustained.  And  this  is  all — this  assump- 
tion—  that  there  is  in  the  claim  of  the  apostolical  succession. 

While,  therefore,  we  cannot  hold  to  any  such  sacramental 

'  Whately. 


§  27.      DIVINE   INSTITUTION   OF   PASTORAL   OFFICE.      355 

virtue  imparted  by  the  laying  on  of  human  hands,  we  still 
believe  in  a  general  and  moral,  though  not  individual,  and, 
as  it  were,  physical,  succession  of  Christ's  ministers  from 
the  apostles.  We  believe  that  every  true  minister's  com- 
mission to  preach  is  drawn  from  Christ  himself,  not  from 
his  apostles. 

The  intrinsic  apostolic  office,  therefore,  was  an  extraordi- 
nary one,  and  ceased  with  the  apostles;  which  we  believe  is 
true  from  these  simple  reasons:  1.  Because  the  "apostle" 
was  one  who  had  personally  seen  Christ  and  his  works,  and 
thus  could  bear  direct  testimony  of  him.  2.  Because  he  had 
received  a  direct  personal  commission  from  Christ.  3.  Be- 
cause he  had  received  supernatural  gifts,  viz.,  the  gift  of 
inspiration  and  the  gift  of  working  miracles.  4.  Because 
the  apostles  were  overseers  and  planters  of  the  universal 
church,  they  exercised  a  general  care  and  oversight  of  the 
churches;  in  a  word,  "the  government  of  the  churches  was 
vested  in  the  apostles,  not  individually,  but  collectively."^ 
5.  Because,  historically,  although  there  were  extraordinary 
appointments  ordered  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  the  appoint- 
ment of  Paul  and  Barnabas,  we  hear  of  no  new  apostle's 
being  regularly  chosen  after  the  death  of  James  the  elder 
(Acts  12:  1). 

But  though  the  name  and  office  of  "  apostle "  were  thus 
extraordinar}^  and  incommunicable,  yet  the  apostles  formed 
the  type  of  the  Christian  ministry,  as  we  may  see  from 
three  or  four  reasons  :  1.  The  work  of  the  Christian  minis- 
try now  is  essentially  the  same  as  that  of  the  apostles ;  viz., 
to  testify  of  "the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus"  to  all  men.  2.  Its 
call  is  essentially  the  same,  for  every  true  minister  receives 
a  real,  if  not  manifestly  personal,  call  from  Christ  himself, 
and  is  a  minister  8iu  delr^^miog  Qeov.  3.  The  instructions  the 
apostles  received  from  Christ  apply  in  spirit,  if  not  in  letter, 
to  ministers  now.     The  "sermon  on  the  mount"  has  been 

*  Coleman's  Primitive  Church,  p.  150. 


356  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

called  Christ's  "ordination  sermon,"  although  Neander  thinks 
it  was  not  actually  addressed  exclusively  to  the  apostles ; 
yet  it  was  doubtless  primarily  addressed  to  them.  The 
discourse  of  our  Lord  in  Matthew  10,  respecting  the  disci- 
ples in  their  relations  to  the  world,  and  his  conversations  in 
John,  13th,  14th,  15th,  16th,  and  17th  chapters,  are  precious 
testaments  to  ministers  of  the  gospel.  4.  The  lives  of  the 
apostles  were  meant  to  be  "  ensamples  "  of  Christian  minis- 
ters' lives  ;  and  the  best  human  model  of  the  Christian  min- 
ister is  the  apostle  Paul.  The  differences  in  the  ages  being 
so  great,  the  apostles,  of  course,  in  many  things  —  in  their 
dress,  mode  of  living,  and  even  outward  forms  of  speech 
and  jDreaching  —  cannot  now  be  followed  entirely;  but  as 
it  is  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity  to  erect  exclusive 
orders,  or  to  take  men  out  of  the  pale  of  human  sympathy 
and  imitation,  therefore  we  believe  that  apostles  are  our 
pastoral  models  in  all  respects,  excepting  where  they  were 
plainly  endowed  with  supernatural  gifts.  The  apostles  indi- 
vidually assumed  no  special  authority,  but  they  exemplified 
the  humility  of  their  faith  by  addressing  other  Christians  as 
"brethren,"  and  by  recognizing  the  full  rights  of  individual 
Christians,  and  of  the  churches  in  ecclesiastical  matters. 

Christ  left  the  apostles  to  ordain  and  regulate  the  minis- 
try, even  as  he  left  them  to  plant  and  organize  the  church  ; 
and  we  judge  from  this  that  questions  about  the  form  and 
order  of  the  ministry  are  really  secondary  questions ;  there 
was  to  be  a  ministry  to  preach  the  truth  and  to  serve  the 
church,  but  historical  events  were  permitted  to  shape  and 
mould  the  outward  form  of  this  ministry. 

f 

There  is  a  comprehensive  passage  in  Ephesians  4:  11, 
where  the  divine  foundation  of  the  church  is  treated  of,  and 
the  different  New  Testament  appellations  of  the  Christian 
ministry  are  given,  each  of  which  has  a  foundation  in  some 
truth  or  duty  connected  with  the  original  institution  of  the 
ministry,  and  this  may  introduce  us  to  a  brief  discussion 


§  27.      DIVINE   INSTITUTION   OF   PASTORAL   OFFICE.     357 

of  other  ministerial  titles ;  and  gathering  these  all  up,  and 
pressing  out  their  juices,  we  may  see  the  full  richness  of 
the  pastoral  office,  as  instituted  by  Christ.  This  passage 
from  Ephesians  will  be  our  text :  ^^And  he  gave  some  apos- 
tles, and  so?7ie  prophets,  and  some  evangelists,  and  some  pas- 
tors and  teachers,  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the  work 
of  the  ministry,  for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ" 

riQotpr^irjg.  This  title,  occurring  next  after  andajoXog,  is  thus 
invariably  assigned  to  the  second  place.  It  was  also  an 
extraordinary  title  in  that  which  was  peculiar  to  it.  It  arose 
from  a  necessity  of  the  times.  In  the  Gentile  churches 
newly  created  from  the  heathen  world,  as  Christian  teachers 
were  rare,  new  converts  seem  to  have  been  inspired  by  an 
immediate  inspiration  of  God  to  teach  divine  truth,  and  in 
some  cases,  as  that  spoken  of  in  Acts  11 :  28,  to  foretell 
events;  although  Olshausen,  on  1  Cor.  14:  1,  asserts  that 
"the  work  of  the  'prophet'  in  the  apostolic  church  was  the 
awakening  power  necessary  for  the  extension  of  the  infant 
church,  and  therefore  was  held  in  high  respect."  It  is  prob- 
able that  the  Old  Testament  "  prophet "  was  more  peculiarly 
a  revealer  of  future  things,  and  the  New  Testament  "proph- 
et "  was  one  inspired  to  an  extraordinary  insight  of  spiritual 
things  already  revealed.  It  was  an  opening  of  truth  to  the 
mind,  a  flash  of  light  from  above,  impelling  one  to  speak, 
asinl  Cor.  14:  29-31. 

As  this  gift  of  prophecy  was  a  great  and  enviable  gift,  so 
it  would  be  coveted  by  many  ;  and  false  prophets  arose  even 
in  the  apostles'  day.  But  there  were  certain  signs  or  evi- 
dences, indicated  by  the  apostles,  to  detect  false  prophets. 
This  peculiar  x<^Qiaixa  ngocpipeiag  did  not  probably  survive 
what  might  properly  be  called  the  apostolic  age,  though  it 
might  have  lingered  somewhat  longer ;  for  when  the  churches 
became  established,  young  men  were  regularly  set  apart  and 
instructed  for  the  ministry. 

Yet  even  as  there  are  points  of  resemblance  between  the 


358  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

apostolic  office  and  that  of  the  mmister  now,  aucl,  as  the 
schoohnen  said,  "the  whole  is  contained  in  every  part,  and 
V.  V. ; "  so,  in  some  sense,  the  office  of  "  prophet,"  as  belong- 
ing to  the  ministry  as  a  whole,  remains  in  the  church,  and 
has  its  partial  gift  represented  now ;  for  the  "  prophets " 
were  preachers  of  Christ.  They  were  extraordinarily  en- 
dowed to  teach  divine  truth  in  times  of  ignorance  and  dark- 
ness ;  and,  in  like  manner,  there  have  been,  in  the  whole 
history  of  the  church,  peculiar,  if  not  supernatural,  illumi- 
nations of  individual  minds,  to  teach  divine  truth,  to  mani- 
fest the  way  of  life  in  times  of  unusual  deadness  and  gloom. 
Prophetic  minds,  rising  up  in  lapsed  epochs  of  the  church, 
have  not  only  brought  great  native  powers  to  bear  upon 
truth,  but  in  those  shaping  influences  which  have  gone  forth 
from  them,  and  in  new  unfoldings  of  truth,  there  seem  to 
have  been  special  illuminations  of  the  Holy  Spirit  granted 
them,  as  teachers  of  the  word.  They  have  been  centres  of 
spiritual  awakening ;  and  often  men  of  simple  lives  in  the 
church,  with  no  pretension  to  learning,  have  a  power  im- 
parted to  them  almost  like  that  of  the  old  "prophet,"  and 
this  in  the  very  mode  of  exhortation  of  the  primitive  church, 
for  the  original  "prophets"  were  probably  uneducated  men. 
John  Bunyan  is  an  example  of  such  a  modern  "  prophet " 
in  the  church.  His  Avork  was  peculiarly  an  awalcening 
work ;  he  said  that  his  preaching  "  began  with  sinners,"  and 
was  chiefly  addressed  to  the  impenitent  conscience,  to  doing 
that  arousing  work  of  which  he  had  himself  so  deep  an  expe- 
rience as  a  sinner.  His  "  Jerusalem  Sermon  "  is,  from  be- 
ginning to  end,  a  trumpet-blast  exhortation  to  the  sleeping 
conscience.  These  words  of  Bunyan  have  always  seemed  to 
have  in  them  something  of  the  spirit  of  the  inspired  times 
of  the  primitive  Christian  church :  "  I  will  not  now  speak 
all  that  I  Jcnoio  in  this  matter,  yet  my  experience  hath  more 
interest  in  that  text  of  Scripture,  Gal.  1 :  11,  12,  than  many 
amongst  men  are  aware:  '/  certify  unto  you^  my  hrethreUy 
that  the  gospel  which  is  preached  of  me  is  not  after  7nan, 


§  27.      DIVINE   INSTITUTION   OF   PASTORAL   OFFICE.     359 

For  I  neither  received  it  of  man,  neither  was  I  taught  it, 
but  by  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ.'"^ 

Every  true  minister  has  these  periods  of  special  power 
and  light  in  speaking  the  word ;  but  this  parallelism  should 
j  not  be  pressed  too  far. 

In  this  connection,  and  under  this  head  of  "prophet,"  we 
might  mention  other  offices  of  the  Christian  ministry,  or, 
more  properly,  xaqia^aiu  (for  none  of  these  were  permanent 
offices) ,  which  were  also  of  an  extraordinary  character. 

Some  of  them  are  enumerated  in  1  Cor.  12  :  28,  ''And 
God  hath  set  some  in  the  church,  first  apostles,  secondly 
prophets,  thirdly  teachers,  after  that  miracles,  then  gifts  of 
healing,  helps  in  government,  diversities  of  tongues." 

Leaving,  then,  the  text  from  Ephesians  for  a  moment, 
we  will  take  up  this  passage,  and  will  look  first  at  the  name 
Jvvixfieig  —  lit.  "powers,"  trans,  "after  that  miracles"  — 
the  abstract  for  the  concrete.  The  same  office,  or  gift,  is 
referred  to  in  the  tenth  verse  —  alia)  Se  ivegy/ifiaza  dwdficotv  — 
"to  another,  working  of  miracles."  It  seems  as  if  God,  in 
his  resolve  that  his  "word"  should  take  root  and  prevail, 
(  imparted  to  common  men,  not  to  apostles  only,  miraculous 
powers  ;  and  this  is  no  more  unreasonable  or  impossible 
than  that  Christ  himself  should  confirm  his  words  by  signs 
following,  i.  e.,  miracles.  He  extended  his  miraculous 
powers  to  his  church,  for  that  church  must  and  should  pre- 
vail. The  Eoman  church  claims  the  continuance  of  super- 
natural and  even  miraculous  gifts  in  the  ministry.  We 
should  like  to  discuss  this  interesting  point,  did  it  not  lead 
too  far  astray  ;  we  would  merely  refer  to  Neander's  Life  of 
Christ,  pp.  128, 129,  as  stating  the  character  of  a  true  mira- 
cle in  so  philosophical  a  manner  as  to  go  far,  in  itself,  toward 
the  clearing  up  of  this  question.^  The  early  testimony  of 
Chrysostom  is  valuable.     At  the  beginning  of  his  XXIXth 

*  Philip's  Life  of  Bunyan. 

2  See,  also,  Olshausen,  Comm.  Matt.  1 :  8. 


360  PASTORAL  OFFICE. 

Homily  upon  First  of  Corinthians  he  says,  the  miraculous 
gifts  are  "  no  more."  The  simple  reason  he  gives  for  this 
is,  that  the  circumstances  of  the  times  were  changed.  When 
men  were  converted  out  of  rank  heathenism,  in  order  that 
they  might  know  the  truth,  and  teach  it  to  others,  and  con- 
firm it  by  their  works,  they  were  straightway  endowed  with 
supernatural  powers  ;  and  they  had  to  be  possessed  of  these 
powers  to  contend  with  the  pretended  miraculous  powers 
of  the  heathen  soothsayers.  So  long  as  Christianity  had  to 
encounter  the  reign  of  devils  on  earth,  Chrysostom  says,  its 
miraculous  gifts  were  continued.  Olshausen's  opinion  is, 
that  miraculous  gifts  lasted,  although  gradually  diminish- 
ing, until  the  foundation  of  the  church  had  been  completed  ^ 
—  perhaps  until  the  end  of  the  third  century,  when  Chris- 
tianity broke  down  the  power  of  heathendom.  The  first 
planting  and  propagation  of  the  word  required  miraculous 
power;  it  was,  as  it  were,  a  complete  revolutiouiziug  of 
nature ;  but,  when  once  planted,  the  truth  is  able  to  win  its 
own  way,  and  to  make  men  free. 

XuQlofiara  I/jutiwv  —  "gifts    of  healing," — and   ytV?;  ylojaoGif 

— ''  diversities  of  tongues."  These  belong  to  the  same 
class  of  supernatural  powers,  which  may  have  extended 
to  raising  the  dead.  Chrysostom  thinks  that  the  "gift 
of  tongues "  was  the  most  useful  and  largely  bestowed  of 
the  miraculous  gifts,  and,  at  the  same  time,  it  became  the 
greatest  cause  of  divisions.^  Whether  we  look  upon  it  as 
an  ability  to  speak  new  and  unacquired  languages,  or  to 
speak  in  an  unknown  tongue,  as  by  an  immediate  revela- 
tion, it  seemed  to  be  a  distinguished  gift,  and  one  highly 
coveted.  The  Romish  church  claim  the  gift  in  the  first 
sense  as  still  residing  in  their  church,  and  they  assert  that 
St.  Francis  Xavier  possessed  it ;  but,  if  we  mistake  not,  he 
did  not  claim  it  for  himself.     Yet,  in  some  modified  sense, 

1  Commentary  on  Matt.  8:1.  "  Homily  XXIX. 


§  27.      DIVINE   INSTITUTION   OF   PASTORAL   OFFICE.     361 

we  might  say,  especially  in  relation  to  the  missionary  opera- 
tions of  the  church,  that  both  of  these  gifts  are  even  now 
needful. 

This  subject  of  miraculous  ministerial  gifts  brings  before 
us,  1.  The  wonderful  spiritual  resurrection  at  the  period  of 
the  introduction  of  Christianity,  when  powers  of  light  strove 
against  powers  of  darkness,  and  holy  oracles  and  tongues 
contended  against  unholy  oracles ;  when  the  whole  spiritual 
world,  good  and  evil,  was  moved  to  its  profoundest  depths, 
and  revealed  itself  by  a  direct  projection  of  its  powers  upon 
the  outward  world.  2.  The  gross  darkness  into  which  the 
world  had  sunk  at  the  coming  of  Christ,  when  it  reached  its 
lowest  point  of  ungodliness.  Evil  had  come  to  its  utmost 
power  in  the  world,  and  Christ  appeared  in  the  fulness 
of  time ;  there  was  an  utter  need  of  the  manifestation  of 
God.  3.  The  worth  which  God  puts  upon  the  truth  of 
Christ ;  that  it  must  be  pushed  forward  into  the  world,  even 
if  it  overrides  the  laws  of  nature.  This  should  make 
ministers  feel  the  worth  of  the  gospel  they  preach,  and  the 
interest  God  has  in  its  triumph. 

We  have  found,  in  the  passage  from  Corinthians  on 
which  we  have  been  commenting,  and  also  in  the  tenth  verse 
of  the  same  chapter,  that,  in  order  of  rank  or  place,  ^^mi- 
raculous gifts"  are  mentioned  after  the  simple  office  of 
^Headier"  with  the  single  exception  of  the  extraordinary 
office  of  "apostle,"  which  combined  both.  In  fact,  in  both 
of  these  passages  from  Ephesians  and  Corinthians,  there  are 
set  before  us  the  "  gifts  "  rather  than  the  "  offices "  of  the 
ministry.  The  office  of  "  teacher  "  or  "  pastor  "  —  neither 
the  highest  nor  the  lowest  in  the  series  —  would  seem,  from 
other  sources  of  proof,  to  be  the  one  which  remains  as  the 
regular  office  of  the  ministry.  Of  the  nine  ^^  charismata  " 
this  one  alone  is  left,  and  absorbs  the  rest ;  the  more  awful 
and  supernatural  light  of  "  apostle "  and  "  prophet "  has 
faded ;  the  more  dazzling  flash  of  "  miracles "  has  ceased ; 
and  there  has  been  left  the  plain,  simple,  ordinary,  but  no 
31 


362  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

less  divinely  instituted,  office  of   the  Christian  "pastor," 
shining,  like  the  light  of  day,  serenely  in  the  church. 

Before,  however,  taking  up  the  title  of  "pastor,"  and 
other  more  ordinary  titles,  we  would  say  a  single  word 
more  upon  the  remaining  title  mentioned  in  the  passage 
from  Corinthians. 

^PTdrnpeig,  xviSeQvriosig  —  lit.  "hclps,"  "govcrnors."  This, 
probably,  was  also  an  extraordinary  office,  or  gift,  and 
refers  to  men  of  special  influence,  social  standing,  and 
weight  of  character,  who  were  taken  into  temporary  power 
to  aid  the  apostles  and  early  pastors  in  ruling  the  church 
during  its  formative,  unsettled  period.  These  "  helps  in 
government"  were  not,  probably,  the  same  as  those  referred 
to  in  other  places  as  "having  the  government  over  the 
church" — such  as  "elders,"  "bishops,"  &c.  ;  but  they  were 
temporary  rulers  and  leading  men,  throwing  their  control- 
ling weight  of  authority  and  influence  into  the  early  strug- 
gles of  the  church,  against  the  anarchy,  evil,  and  disorderly 
influences  around  and  within.  They  were  like  the  seniores 
plehis  in  the  African  church  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  cen- 
turies, who  "were  not  clerg3^men,  but  civil  personages, 
and  other  prominent  members  of  the  congregation."  ^ 

We  now  return  to  the  original  passage  in  Ephesians. 
In  the  place  next  after  "prophets,"  we  have  "evangelists." 

EiayyeXiaxrig.  This  title  is  fouud  three  times  in  the  Scrip- 
tures—  in  Acts  21 :  8,  where  Philip  the  deacon  is  also  called 
an  "evangelist ;  "  in  2  Tim.  4:5,  when  Timothy  is  exhorted 
"  to  do  the  work  of  an  evangelist ; "  and  in  the  passage  we 
are  now  commenting  upon  —  Eph.  4:  11.  This  title  evi- 
dently refers  to  those  sent  forth  by  the  apostles,  and  en- 
dowed with  their  authority,  to  publish  the  "evangel,"  or 
"glad  tidings"  of   the  kingdom   of   God,   and   to   ordain 

'  Schaflf's  History  of  Christian  Church,  v.  ii.,  p.  258. 


§  27.      DIVINE   INSTITUTION   OF   PASTORAL   OFFICE.     363 

officers  and  teachers  of  the  infant  churches ;  they  were  in 
some  sense  superior  to  the  ordinary  "  pastor,"  they  caught 
light  from  the  "apostles,"  and  they  formed,  also,  we  think, 
an  extraordinary  office  belonging  to  the  needs  of  that  early 
period ;  being,  as  it  were,  a  kind  of  extension  of  the  apos- 
tolic office,  doing  that  publishing  and  planting  work,  that 
breaking  of  new  ground,  which  was  the  apostles'  peculiar 
business ;  it  was  a  multiplication  of  the  apostles,  since  they 
could  not  be  everywhere.  If  any,  therefore,  deserve  to  be 
considered  as  successors  of  the  apostles,  it  was  the  first 
"evangelists."  The  svayyihov  itself  was  a  7ieiv  thing,  as  the 
word  shows  ;  and  the  "  evangelists  "  were  the  first  heralds 
of  this  good  news ;  their  work  was  almost  wholly  a  mis- 
sionary work.  They  blew  the  trumpet  to  announce  the 
coming  of  the  organized  host.  But  when  Christianity  was 
once  planted,  and  some  permanent  growth  in  knowledge  y 
and  faith  was  attained,  the  office  of  the  "evangelist"  ceased ; 
and  it  did  not  continue  to  be  part  and  parcel  of  the  regular  ( 
working  system  of  the  established  Christian  church.  Ne- 
ander  says  (Planting  and  Training,  p.  94),  "According  to 
the  original  Christian  phraseology,  the  term  could  only 
denote  one  whose  calling  it  was  to  publish  the  doctrine  of 
salvation  to  men,  and  thereby  to  lay  the  foundation  of  the 
Christian  church ;  on  the  contrary,  the  pastor  or  teacher 
presupposed  faith  in  the  doctrine  of  salvation,  and  a  church 
already  founded,  and  employed  himself  in  the  further  train- 
ing in  Christian  knowledge." 

The  oldest  commentators  generally  agree  that  the  office  of 
"  evangelist "  belonged  to  the  period  of  inaugurating  Chris- 
tianity, and  passed  away  as  a  special  office  with  that  period. 

Some  of  the  apostles  themselves  did  the  work  of  "  evan- 
gelists," such  as  Paul,  whose  life  was  one  series  of  mission- 
ary tours ;  but  there  were  other  "  evangelists  "  besides  the 
apostles ;  and  it  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  long  after  Timo- 
thy was  made  a  "bishop,"  —  if  he  were  ever  made  one, — 
he  is  .exhorted  by  Paul  to  "  do  the  work  of  an  evangelist y" 


364  PASTORAL  omcE. 

as  if  his  dignity  as  "  bishop  "  was  not,  at  least,  superior  to 
that  of  "evangelist ;"  indeed,  Timothy  and  Titus  were  more 
properly  "  evangelists  "  than  "  bishops,"  for  they  made  the 
"bishops,"  or  "pastors,"  as  the  apostles  did. 

Although  this  was  an  extraordinary  oiEce,  and  although 
it  confuses  our  idea  of  the  ministry  to  consider  it  as  still  a 
regular  office  of  the  church,  yet  the  "evangelist"  element 
still  exists  in  the  Christian  church  and  ministry.  The  ever 
iiew  proclamation  of  the  gospel  to  the  heathen  world  requires 
this  work ;  indeed.  Dr.  Anderson,  whose  authority  is  of 
weight  in  this  question,  is,  if  we  mistake  not,  strenuous 
upon  the  point  that  this  office  is  a  regular  office  of  the 
church ;  perhaps  it  is  a  regular  work,  rather  than  office. 
It  represents  the  aggressive  spirit  of  Christianity  in  its 
assaults  upon  the  power  of  darkness  at  home  and  abroad. 
The  gospel,  as  a  new  thing,  must  still  be  proclaimed  to 
vast  masses  of  ignorant  and  heathen  minds. 

A  custom  has  grown  up  with  the  exigencies  of  the  mis- 
sionary spirit  recently  developed  in  the  church,  and  which 
has  been  greatly  increased  by  the  needs  that  the  war  gave 
rise  to,  for  the  churches  to  ordain  "  evangelists,"  "  mission- 
aries," and  "  pastors  at  large."  This  custom  is,  however, 
opposed  to  strict  congregational  usage,  which  forbids  the 
ordaining  of  a  minister  excepting  as  connected  with  and 
resulting  from  the  call  of  a  particular  church  (Punchard, 
Cong.  Die,  pp.  170-278;  Upham,  Kat.  Dis.,  pp.  86-94). 
Still,  it  has  been  done  more  or  less  of  late;  the  process 
is,  that  the  church  of  which  the  "evangelist"  or  "mis- 
sionary "  who  is  to  be  appointed  is  a  member,  or  any  other 
church  that  consents,  issues  letters-missive ;  and  his  ordi- 
nation by  a  council  thus  called  entitles  him  to  gather  a 
church  among  heathen  people,  or  in  uuchristianized  dis- 
tricts, or  in  the  army,  to  administer  the  sacraments,  and  to 
enter  upon  all  the  rights  and  duties  of  pastors.  This  right 
of  ordination  is  claimed  to  be  founded  upon  Acts  13  :  23,  or 
the  scriptural  institution  of  "evangelist."  There  is  an  inter- 
esting passage  in  Eusebius'  Ecclesiastical  History  (B.  III., 


§  27.      DIVINE   INSTITUTION  OF  PASTOKAL   OFFICE.     365 

c.  37) ,  which  throws  some  light  upon  this  subject,  aucl  gives 
us  his  idea  of  this  office,  or  work.  He  is  speaking  of  one 
Quadratus,  in  the  reign  of  Trajan,  toward  the  close  of 
the  first  century.  He  calls  hira,  and  others  like  him, 
"evangelists,"  and  says  of  them,  "For  many  of  the  disci- 
ples at  that  time,  animated  with  a  more  ardent  love  of  the 
divine  word,  had  first  fulfilled  the  Saviour's  precept  by  dis- 
tributing their  substance  to  the  needy ;  afterward  leaving 
their  country,  they  performed  the  office  of  '  evangelists '  to 
those  who  had  not  yet  learned  the  faith,  whilst,  with  a  noble 
ambition  to  proclaim  Christ,  they  also  delivered  to  them 
the  books  of  the  holy  Gospels.  After  laying  the  founda- 
tions of  faith  in  foreign  parts,  as  the  particular  object  of 
their  mission,  and  after  appointing  others  as  shepherds  of 
the  flocks,  and  committing  to  these  the  care  of  those  that 
had  been  recently  introduced,  they  went  again  to  other 
regions  and  nations,  with  the  grace  and  cooperation  of  God. 
The  Holy  Ghost  also  still  wrought  many  wonders  through 
them,  so  that,  as  soon  as  the  gospel  was  heard,  men  volun- 
tarily, in  crowds,  and  eagerly,  embraced  the  true  faith  with 
their  whole  minds."  We  see  here  that  the  work  of  the 
"  evangelist "  continued  ;  but  it  was  spoken  of  by  Eusebius 
as  something  which  belonged  to  the  apostolic  epoch  of  the 
propagating  and  planting  of  the  church.  If,  therefore,  we 
use  the  term  or  employ  the  office  now,  we  think  that  it 
should  be  wholly  in  this  sense  of  a  missionary  work,  of 
going  into  new  parts,  and  proclaiming  new  tidings. 

The  modern  sense,  held  by  some,  of  "evangelists,"  as  con- 
stituting a  separate  office  of  the  itinerant  preacher,  is  not 
at  gfll  contained  in  the  ancient  idea  of  "  evangelist ;  "  and  it 
is,  we  think,  an  unnecessary  creation,  as  highly  as  we  value 
the    labors    of    many   honored    revival -preachers.^       Such 

'  The  decision  of  the  council  in  Richmond,  Vt.,  declarative  of  the  evils 
of  ordaining  "evangelists"  as  "preachers  at  large,"  and  "stated  supplies," 
is  generally  upheld  by  the  best  ecclesiastical  writers,  and  by  most  congrega- 
tional churches. 

31* 


366  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

quasi  "  pastors  "  tend  to  increase  the  inefficiency  of  the  reg- 
ular pastoral  office,  and  to  destroy  its  ancient  scriptural 
foundations.  It  does  not,  therefore,  seem  to  be  advisable 
to  regard  the  "  evangelist "  as  any  separate  office  or  work 
distinct  from  that  of  the  "  pastor  ;  "  but  that  one  should  be 
ordained  as  a  regular  minister,  and  then  set  apart,  if  neces- 
sary, as  Paul  and  Barnabas  were,  to  the  separate  work  of 
evangelization  in  some  particularly  needy  and  destitute 
field.  Of  course,  necessity  overrides  the  best  rules ;  and 
■there  may  be  cases  where  ministers,  like  the  Methodist 
"local  preachers,"  are  set  apart  without  any  special  church, 
or  even  a  special  field,  over  which  they  are  placed  ;  but  such 
cases  are  practically  rare,  and  in  such  cases  the  pastoral 
work  —  the  care  of  Christ's  church  —  is  generally  the  future 
and  final  aim ;  for  even  the  foreign  or  home  missionary, 
who  goes  forth  into  a  new  field  as  an  "  evangelist,"  expects 
to  gather  a  church  and  become  its  pastor. 

The  revival  of  this  "  extraordinary  office,"  as  another  reg- 
ular ministerial  title  and  office  at  the  present  day,  is,  we 
think,  unnecessary ;  it  introduces  confusion ;  and  many 
have  thereby  crept  into  the  ministry,  who  were  in  no  way 
fit  for  it.  It  is  better  to  adhere  to  some  general  principle 
in  this  matter. 

Tovi  81  noi^hug  xai  didaanc&lovg  —  "and  somc  pastors  and 
teachers."  These  titles  are  joined  together  as  if  signifying 
nearly  the  same  thing.  The  "  xai"  here  is  evidently  not  a 
disjunctive  expressing  dissimilarity,  but  a  simple  connec- 
tive of  similar  things.  The  sentence  runs  along  mentioning 
different  things,  such  as  "  apostles,"  "  evangelists,"  &c.,  and 
then  says,  "  pastors  and  teachers,"  joining  these  together 
in  one  breath,  as  if  they  were  identical ;  and  the  absence 
of  the  article  before  diSaaxdlovg  confirms  it.  This  is  the 
interpretation  of  Augustine  and  Jerome,  Erasmus  and 
Bengel,  and  of  such  modern  commentators  as  Riickert, 
Harless,   Turner,    and   Alford,   who   consider  the   two   as 


§  27.      DIVINE   INSTITUTION   OF  PASTORAL   OFFICE.     367 

synonj'mous  terms.  Whatever  distinction  there  is  probably 
amounts  to  this — that  in  the  name  of  "pastor"  is  contained 
somethinof  more  of  the  "  administrative "'  idea ;  in  that  of 
"teacher,"  more  of  the  purely"  didactic."  The  fact  that  this 
is  the  only  instance  of  the  use  of  ■no>.n'f[v  as  applied  strictly  to 
the  ministerial  office  in  the  church,  strengthens  the  idea  that 
it  is  essentially  the  same  as  bibuav-uloQ.  Both  of  these  titles  pre- 
suppose a  church  already  established,  a  faith  already  received. 
They  signify  the  ordinary  ministry  of  the  regularly  organized 
church,  after  the  extraordinary  planting  work  of  "apostles" 
and  "  evangelists  "  was  accomplished  ;  they  permanently  oc- 
cupy the  field ;  the  churches  were  left  in  the  hands  of  the 
"  pastors  and  teachers  ;  "  and  these  two  are  really  one  minis- 
try, which  wx  now  call  "the  pastoral  office."  But  let  us 
look  at  this  title  of  "pastor"  more  carefully. 

TJoif^rjv.  This  beautiful  title  of  the  ministerial  office  is 
derived  from  noi^iaivw,  "to  feed  a  flock."  It  is,  above  all,  an 
affectionate  title,  expressive  of  the  genuine  spirit  of  Christ, 
who  is  "the  good  Shepherd,"  i.  e.,  "the  true  Shepherd." 
It  recalls  the  good,  kind,  even  tender  relations  of  the  true 
pastor  to  his  people  ;  his  love  for  their  souls  ;  his  spiritual, 
even  rather  than  official,  relations  to  them.  The  earliest 
representation  of  the  Saviour  in  Christian  art,  is  that  of  the 
shepherd  bearing  a  lamb  upon  his  shoulders.  The  word  is 
first  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  where  it  is  frequently 
applied,  as  in  the  23d  Psalm,  to  God,  as  if  he  were  the  true 
"pastor,"  who  did  all  things  essential  for  the  care,  nourish- 
ment, and  salvation  of  his  people.  The  idea  of  noiuriv  is,  (1.) 
Feeding  —  he  who  nourishes,  or  instructs  souls  in  divine 
truth.  (2.)  Love  or  sympathy.  We  can  have  little  idea 
of  the  relation  between  the  shepherd  and  the  sheep  in  East- 
ern countries ;  they  know  his  voice,  and  follow  him  as  by 
a  cord  fastened  in  their  deepest  instincts.  The  true  shep- 
herd is  he  who  thus  lives  always  with  his  sheep,  and  loves 
them.      He  is  no  "  hireling,"  doing  his  work  for  pay,  but 


368  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

from  love.  When  a  pastor  has  this  sympathy  with  and 
for  his  people,  he  teaches  the  truth  in  its  power,  and  sets 
forth  the  Christian  graces  in  their  beauty.  (3.)  Self- 
sacrifice.  The  Eastern  shepherd  is  sometimes  called  upon 
to  risk  his  life,  and  even  lay  it  down,  for  his  sheep ;  the 
self-sacrificing  love  of  Christ  for  men,  is  represented  in 
this  relationship.  (4.)  Watching ,  jjrotecting ,  guiding,  rul- 
ing. Thus  Homer  calls  the  king  "  jto/^jjV  Xuihv"  It  implies 
some  genuine  authority  to  guide  and  rule :  in  the  case  of 
the  minister  it  does  not  imj^ly  ruling  or  presiding  over  by 
the  mere  force  of  ecclesiastical  ordination,  or  even  of  supe- 
rior knowledge,  but  by  a  moral  and  spiritual  right,  as  be- 
longing to  him  who  is  regularly  appointed  to  dispense  God's 
word  and  guide  in  spiritual  things. 

We  esteem  this  authority  of  the  Christian  pastor  to  be 
essentially  of  a  moral  nature,  or  as  the  legitimate  influence 
of  an  appointed  teacher  of  truth,  who  holds  a  divinely  insti- 
tuted oflice,  and  who  is  himself  a  Christ-like  man.  He  who 
does  his  pastoral  duty  faithfully  will  have  power  and  authori- 
ty enough  ;  and  if  he  desires  more,  this  would  seem  to  show 
the  working  in  him  of  the  ambitious  principle.  The  Congre- 
gational idea  of  limiting  the  pastoral  office  to  a  single  local 
church,  is  well  adapted  to  repress  the  natural  desire  of  man  to 
aim  after  a  wide  and  universal  authority  in  the  church.  But 
still,  we  find  that  the  very  term  noiiM-fiv,  which  is  applied  to 
Christ  himself  as  head  of  the  church,  is  applied  to  his  minis- 
ter; it  would  seem,  therefore,  at  least,  to  imply  the  highest 
authority,  of  whatever  kind  it  may  be,  which  exists  in  any 
officer  of  the  church.^ 

^id&axalog.  Ncauder  thinks  that  this  name  might  have 
been  applied  to  any  member  of  the  church  peculiarly  gifted 
to  teach,  whether  minister  or  not.^  It  may  be  true,  as  has 
been  before  hinted,  that  these  names  did  not  all  originally 

'  Coleman's  Primitive  Christianity,  p.  135. 
®  Planting  and  Training,  ch.  i.,  p.  36. 


§  27.       DIVINE    INSTITUTION    OF    PASTOEAL    OFFICE.       369 

indicate  separate  ofBces,  but  rather  distinctive  gifts,  when 
these  gifts  were  more  needed  than  they  are  now. 

And,  indeed,  all  the  oflSces  mentioned  in  the  apostolic 
church  sprang  immediately  from  the  body  of  the  church 
itself,  being  developed  naturally  from  the  peculiar  exigen- 
cies of  that  extraordinary  period ;  as  did,  for  instance,  the 
office  of  "deacon."  The  man  who  was  best  suited  for  a  par- 
ticular service,  whatever  it  might  be,  was  chosen  from  the 
whole  number  of  Christian  believers ;  and  yet,  before  the 
apostolic  age  was  finished,  there  was  a  regularly  established 
ministry. 

This  term  SiduoxdXog  generally  denoted  the  ministry  of 
what  Neander  calls  "  the  internal  guidance  of  the  word  ;  "  or, 
as  it  is  written  in  1  Tim.  5  :  17,  who  "  labored  in  word  and 
doctrine."  It  contains,  as  does  nomfiv,  the  essential  idea  of 
the  Christian  ministry,  which  is  eminently  a  "  ministry  of 
the  word ;  "  and  it  is  employed  in  no  such  connection 
as  to  destroy  the  identity  between  it  and  noi/w^v  as  this  is 
set  forth  in  Eph.  4:  11. 

The  "  teacher,"  according  to  Neander,  was  he  who  was 
especially  intrusted  with  the  Uyog  yvwaecog,  the  reflective  and 
didactic  quality  —  the  "pastor"  with  the  Uyog  aocpUxg,  the  pru- 
dential and  administrative  quality  ;  ^  but  these  may  be  both 
united  in  one  ministry.  This  calm  and  noble  "  teaching  " 
office  is  essential  in  the  Christian  church,  and  is  especially 
useful  for  edification ;  and  it  is  sometimes  lost  sight  of  in 
the  idea  of  the  necessity  of  continual  religious  excitement 
to  build  up  the  church. 

Let  us  now  take  up  the  two  or  three  other  principal  re- 
maining names,  or  titles,  applied  to  the  Christian  ministry 
in  the  New  Testament,  which  occur  where  there  is  evidence 
of  an  organization  of  the  apostolic  church  more  formal  and 
permanent  than  is  found  in  the  earliest  New  Testament 
records. 

Planting  and  Training,  ch.  v.,  p.  89. 


370  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

rfQfaSvTfQog.  This  title  was  simply  the  transferring  of  the 
name  of  the  presiding  officer,  or  minister,  of  the  Jewish 
synagogue  to  the  presiding  officer  of  the  Christian  church 
assembly,  built  upon  the  model  of  the  synagogue  worship. 

The  chief  idea  of  nQea^vTs<jn:,  both  in  the  synagogue  and 
Christian  sense,  was  doubtless  that  of  presiding,  or  ruling; 
he  was  the  president  of  the  ecclesiastical  assembly. 

There  were  also  "teaching  elders,"  as  we  see  m  Titus  1  : 
9,  and  1  Tim.  5  :  17,  who  were  to  be  held  in  special  honor; 
so  that,  at  any  rate,  a  TTQefffivTSQog  was  no  higher  office  than  a 
didijtaiculog  ov  noifirfr.  If  there  w\as  any  difference  in  rank  or 
order,  the  "teacher "or  "preacher"  came  first.  They  were, 
in  fact,  identical,  as  in  the  passage  in  1  Tim.  5  :  17.  The 
truth  is,  that,  in  a  large  field  of  labor  assigned  to  the  Chris- 
tian presbyters,  one  felt  himself  drawn  more  to  this,  another 
to  that  portion,  since  the  revelation  of  the  Spirit  was  given 
to  each  nQug  TO  av^cpBQov.  But  Paul  honored  more  those  elders, 
who,  together  with  other  duties,  were  engaged  especially  in 
the  instruction  and  comfort  of  believers  ;  because  the  capaci- 
ty for  this  highest  gift  of  the  presbyteral  office  was  not  found 
in  the  same  degree  in  all.^ 

The  title' or  office  of  nqea^visQog  came  into  use,  probably, 
when  the  business  of  the  church  grew  large  and  its  details 
onerous  to  the  apostles,  just  as  the  deacon's  office  was  insti- 
tuted. 

The  idea  of  nQEcr^vTeQog  still  remains  in  the  ministry,  in  the 
presiding,  moderating  power  of  the  Christian  minister,  in 
the  exercise  of  the  faculty  of  judgment  in  the  affairs  of  the 
church,  or  what  Bengel  calls  " jpotestatem  judicandi  in  ec- 
chsia."  Every  minister  is  the  president,  or  "  ruling  elder," 
of  his  church.  The  primitive  "presbyter "  was,  however, 
the  child  of  the  church,  springing  from  its  body,  and  chosen 
by  its  election  ;  he  "  ruled"  in  conjunction  with  the  church, 
and  recognized  the  real   power  to  be  in  the  people ;  his 

'  Lange's  Commentary,  in  loco. 


§  27.      DIVINE   INSTITUTION   OF   PASTORAL   OFFICE.      371 

authority  was  regulative  rather  than  strictly  judicial. ^  In 
the  early  New  England  churches  there  were  generally  two 
elders,  the  "  preaching  "  and  the  "ruling"  elder;  but  this 
plan  was  formally  abandoned  after  about  fifty  years. 

'ETiiaxonog.  This  is  derived  from  iniaxsnTOfini — to  "look 
after,"  to  "  inspect,"  to  "  oversee."  The  term  iniononog  really 
occurs  but  five  times  in  the  New  Testament.  In  1  Pet.  2  : 
25,  it  is  applied  to  Christ,  as  "  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of 
souls  ;  "  and  here  it  is  coupled  with  7ro//t7j»',  as  "  pastor."  In 
1  Tim.  3  :  2,  it  is  used  in  such  a  sense  as  makes  it  beyond 
question  identical  with  ngEaSvTSQog.  It  is  the  more  purely 
Greek  title  of  "  presbyter,"  and  is  used  uniformly  in  rela- 
tion to  Gentile  churches,  as  a  title  Avhich  they  could  better 
understand  than  the  Jewish  one  of  n^ea^vTe^o;.  In  Acts  20  : 
17,  18,  it  is  also  used  interchangeably  with  the  office  of 
nqea^vTeQo;.  Here  the  apostle  tells  the  "  presbyters  "  of  the 
church  at  Ephesus,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  had  made  them 
"bishops"  over  the  flock  —  to  feed,  to  act  the  "pastor"  to 
{noiixuii'Eiv),  the  church  of  God;  and  this  last  is  also  nearly 
equivalent  to  8t,duay.u}.o;,  or  teacher,  so  that  we  have  the  four 
terms  together  here  as  nearly,  if  not  quite,  identical.  The 
essential  identity  of  "  bishop  "  and  "  presbyter  "  is  also  seen 
in  Titus  1 :  5,  7,  and  in  1  Pet.  5  :  1,2.  The  use  of  the 
verb  iniaxonioj  to  signify  "  acting  as  presbyter,"  as  in  1  Pet. 
5  :  2,3,  seems  to  confirm  this  identity.  Jerome,  in  a  well- 
known  passage,  says,  "  opwtZ  veteres  iidem  episcopi  et  jpres- 
hyteri,  quia  illud  nomen  dignitatis  est,  hoc  cetatis.'"-  Chrys- 
ostom  affirms  the  identity  of  the  two,  saying  that  there  were 
many  "bishops,"  i.  e.,  "presbyters,"  in  the  same  church.  Au- 
gustine, in  his  day,  when  the  church  had  become  thorough- 
ly episcopal,  remarks  thus  upon  this  point:  "The  office  of 
'  bishop '  is  above  the  office  of  ^  presbyter,'  not  by  the  au- 
thority of  Scripture,  but  after  the  names  of  honor  which 

'  Coleman's  Primitive  Christianity,  on  this  title. 
*  Epist.  ad  Oceanum ;  also  Comment,  ad  Tit.  1 :  7. 


372  PASTOEAL   OFFICE. 

the  custom  of  the  church  hath  now  obtained."  Neander 
regards  the  two  titles  as  convertible  terms. ^ 

The  office  of  inioxono;  in  the  apostolic  chui'ch  was  a  mod- 
est office,  and  implied  no  hierarchical  dignity;^  we  never 
find  it  confounded  with  the  office  of  the  apostles.  It  signi- 
fied the  "spiritual  superintendent,"  or  "overseer,"  of  a  reli- 
gious body,  or  church  ;  or,  possibly,  when  Gentile  churches 
were  beginning  to  be  formed  in  great  numbers,  and  the 
larger  Gentile  element  was  making  itself  felt,  men  were 
appointed  to  "supervise"  the  organization  of  these  Gentile 
churches,  to  settle  them  into  their  established  forms  and 
working. 

Whately,  in  his  Kingdom  of  Christ,  says,  "Again,  it 
seems  to  have  been  at  least  the  general,  if  not  the  univer- 
sal, practice  of  the  apostles  to  aj^point  over  each  separate 
church  a  single  individual  as  a  chief  governor,  under  the 
title  of  'angel'  (i.  e.,  legate  from  the  apostles)  or  'bishop' 
(i.  e.,  superintendent  or  overseer).  A  church  and  a  diocese 
seem  to  have  been  for  a  considerable  time  coextensive  and 
identical."  ^  The  original  "  bishop  "  was,  we  believe,  the 
spiritual  guide  or  teacher  of  one  local  church  —  in  fact,  its 
"  pastor."  Diocesan  episcopacy,  or  the  system  of  the  bishop- 
ric of  a  plurality  of  churches,  or  of  a  district,  though,  in- 
deed, it  began  to  appear  as  early  as  the  second  century,  and 
was  fully  established  in  Cyprian's  time,  is  held  b}^  Whately 
to  be  an  essential  departure  from  the  original  New  Tes- 
tament office  of  "  bishop ; "  and  this  is  also  the  freely- 
expressed  opinion  of  Dr.  Barrow,  and  many  of  the  most 
learned  men  of  the  English  established  church  in  past  and 
present  times. 

The  scriptural   office    of  enlaxorro;,  like   that  of  ngsu^vTrgog, 

was  not  the  earliest  office  or  title  of  the  ministry,  but  sprang 
up  in  the  later  days  of  the  apostles,  through  a  necessity  for 
a  stronger  administration  or  supervision  of  the  church ;  as 

'  Neander's  Planting  and  Training,  B.  III.,  p.  92. 

"  Base's  Hist,  of  Chr.  Ch.,  §  42.  ^  P.  131,  Lon.  ed. 


§  27.      DIVINE   INSTITUTION   OF   PASTORAL   OFFICE.     373 

Vinet  says,  "It  was  an  expedient,  not  an  institution."^  It 
certainly  implied  no  exclusive  and  permanent  order,  that 
disturbed  and  destroyed  the  parity  of  the  ministry,  and 
assumed  apostolical  authority. 

The  true  idea  of  inioxonog,  as  now  existing  in  the  minis- 
try, is  that  of  "general  direction  or  superintendency  of  all 
the  affairs  of  the  church,  external  and  internal ; "  and  the 
humblest  minister  should  not  lose  sight  of  the  apostolic 
counsels  to  the  "bishop,"  by  supposing  that  they  cannot 
apply  to  him.  If  he  is  a  regularly  called  and  ordained 
minister  of  the  gospel,  truly  serving  Christ  in  his  high  call- 
ing, let  him  feel  that  he  is  a  "  bishop  "  in  the  church  of  God, 
and  has  4,n  "  excellent  office." 

These  New  Testament  titles  of  ^nlaxonog,  noifi-^v,  diddaxaXog, 
and  TTQsa^vTeQog,  as  has  been  hinted,  stand  for  essentially  the 
same  office,  and  are  employed  as  convertible  terms.  We 
have  seen  that  "  pastor  "  and  "  teacher,"  in  Eph.  4:11,  desig- 
nate, grammatically,  essentially  the  same  office ;  and  they 
are  never  used  in  other  places  in  such  a  way  as  to  render  a 
distinction  necessary.  We  have  seen,  also,  that  "presby- 
ter," in  those  cases  where  it  applies  to  an  officer  of  the 
Christian  church,  as  far  as  the  Scripture  shows,  is  spoken 
of  as  the  onli/  officer  of  the  church  besides  "  deacons."  If 
so,  then  "presbyter"  is  an  identical  office  with  "pastor  and 
teacher,"  which  terms  are  always  applied  to  the  jjerraanent 
chief  officer  of  the  church.  We  have  seen,  also,  that  "  bish- 
op "  is  used  as  a  convertible  term  with  "  presbyter ;  "  things, 
then,  that  are  equal  to  another  thing  are  equal  to  each  other. 
Nor  is  there  anything  in  the  duties  or  requirements  of  any 
of  these  to  separate  it  from  the  rest.  The  qualifications  of 
"  elders  and  bishops  "  are  given  in  two  elaborate  passages  — 
in  Tit.  1  :  6-10,  and  1  Tim.  3  :  2-7  ;  and  they  are  almost 
verbally  identical. 

Neither  can  it  be  proved  from  the  New  Testament  that  a 

»  Pas.  Theol.,  p.  30. 

32 


371  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

higher  official  standing  was  assigned  to  one  than  to  another. 
There  were,  doubtless,  degrees  of  dignity  among  the  primi- 
tive ministers  of  the  gospel,  arising  from  age,  priority  of 
call,  distinguished  services,  or  other  circumstances,  just  as 
there  are  now  among  our  own  venerated  ministers  and  hon- 
ored missionaries.  Tlius  the  apostles  had  a  peculiar  rank 
and  authority ;  and  among  them,  James,  as  surviving  the 
rest,  and  continuing  in  Jerusalem,  gathered  to  himself  the 
natural  and  confessed  right  of  presidency  ;  but  there  is  no 
proof  of  any  real  inequality,  or  absolute  want  of  identity, 
in  these  titles  of  the  ministerial  office,  or  anything  belong- 
ing to  one  of  them,  which  could  not,  and  should  not,  be 
exercised  by  any  other ;  so  that  we  conclude  that  these 
titles  all  denote  the  ordinary  office  of  the  ministry,  as  dif- 
ferent phases  of  one  office,  viewing  it  from  diflerent  histori- 
cal points  of  view.  Undoubtedly  they  convey  different  and 
distinct  ideas,  but  not  sufficiently  so  to  indicate  separate 
offices,  and  they  might  all  apply  to  one  office.  Calvin 
adheres  to  this  view  in  Institutes,  B.  IV.,  chap.  iii. 

A  few  remaining  titles  are  given,  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, to  the  ministerial  work ;  which,  however,  imply  cer- 
tain varied  ideas,  or  characteristic  features,  of  the  work, 
rather  than  special  and  distinct  ministerial  functions. 

nQEo^tibi — "to  act  as  ambassador"  of  Jesus  Christ,  which 
gives  a  high  idea  of  the  true  greatness  and  dignity  of  the 
pastoral  office. 

Oixovofzog  —  "steward,"  as  in  1  Cor.  4:  2  —  "stewards  of 
the  mysteries  of  God  " — a  sublime  trust. 

'Jyyeloi  — "angel,"  "legate,"  "proclaimer," — the  one 
who  leads  the  worship  of  the  church.  Massillon,  in  his 
Charge  I.,  says,  "A  pastor  is  charged  with  the  welfare  of 
God's  people  ;  he  is  one  of  those  messengers  who  are  con- 
tinually ascending  and  descending  the  ladder  of  Jacob  :  he 


§  27.       DIVINE    INSTITUTION    OF   PASTOEAL    OFFICE.     375 

descends  from  it  in  order  that  he  may  acquaint  himself  with 
the  necessities  of  the  church  ;  lie  ascends  by  prayer,  that  ho 
may  bear  them  before  the  throne  of  God,  and  open  the 
bosom  of  inexhaustible  compassion  upon  the  wants  of  thd 
gospel  fold."  Massiilon  elsewhere  speaks  of  pastors  as  the 
"  visible  angels  "  appointed  to  conduct  the  souls  of  men  to 
heaven. 

i:vvEQjdg  Gaov  —  "laborer  together  with  God." 

\^Qxniin(»v  —  "architect,"  or  "builder"  —  one  who  super- 
intends the  ordering  or  building  of  the  church  of  God. 

^TQonmirig'irjaov  Xqiaiov  — "  soldicr  of  Jesus  Christ." 

These  names,  and  others  similar  to  them,  speak  for  them- 
selves, and  they  set  before  us  the  greatness  and  dignity  of 
the  work  of  the  ministry. 

The  pastoral  office  is  also  called,  in  2  Cor.  4:1,  Siaaoviuv 
—  translated  in  our  version  "ministry,"  from  which  comes 
our  common  term  "ministry."  It  means,  literally,  "waiting 
upon,"  or  "  service,"  and  is  used  here  in  a  more  general 
sense  of  the  word,  and  not  for  the  office  of  "deacon."  Per- 
haps the  use  of  Siuxovog  in  1  Tim.  3  :  8-13  applies  also  to 
the  ministerial  office  ;  but  this  is  doubtful.  At  all  events, 
the  idea  of  "serving"  or  "waiting  upon"  the  church,  which 
is  the  main  idea,  is  an  important  one ;  the  minister  is  "  the 
servant  of  all  for  Jesus'  sake." 

From  this  survey  of  the  scriptural  titles,  functions,  ideas, 
and  facts,  that  enter  into  the  original  scriptural  or  divine 
institution  of  the  pastoral  office,  we  are  forced  to  the  con- 
clusion, which,  in  fact,  has  been  suggested  all  along,  that 
while  a  regular  and  permanent  office  of  the  Christian  min- 
istry was  divinely  instituted,  and  its  fundamental  principles 
were  clearly  laid  down  for  all  time,  yet  its  outward  histori- 
cal form  was  left  in  a  great  measure  to  be  decided  upon  and 


376  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

shaped  by  the  wisdom  of  the  church,  accordhig  to  the  pres- 
sure of  circumstances.  We  are  not  such  bigoted  secta- 
rians as  to  suppose  that  our  own  form  of  cliurch  polity 
(though  we  hold  it  to  be,  on  the  whole,  the  most  scriptural) 
is  so  perfect  that  it  involves  an  essential  error  to  adopt  an- 
other form  of  church  polity.  True  Congregationalists,  while 
they  love  and  honor  their  own  system,  love  and  honor,  even 
more,  that  common  spiritual  truth  which  it  enshrines,  and 
which,  in  our  imperfect  humanity,  may  develop  itself  under 
many  varying  outward  forms. 

We  are  strengthened  in  this  view  by  the  spirit  of  the  fol- 
lowing comprehensive  remarks  upon  scriptural  omissions^ 
from  Whately's  Kingdom  of  Christ,  p.  77,  Lou.  ed.  :  — 

"  No  such  thing  is  to  be  found  in  our  Scriptures  as  a  cat- 
echism, or  reguhir  elementary  introduction  to  the  Christian 
religion  ;  nor  do  they  furnish  us  with  anything  of  the  nature 
of  a  systematic  creed,  set  of  articles,  confession  of  faith,  or 
whatever  other  name  one  may  designate  a  regular,  complete 
compendium  of  Christian  doctrines  ;  nor,  again,  do  they 
supply  us  with  a  liturgy  for  ordinary  public  worship,  or 
with  forms  of  administering  the  sacraments,  or  for  confer- 
ring holy  orders  ;  nor  even  do  the}'  give  any  precise  direc- 
tions as  to  these  and  other  ecclesiastical  matters,  or  anything 
that  at  all  corresponds  to  a  rubric  or  set  of  canons.  Now, 
these  omissions  present  a  complete  moral  demonstration  that 
the  apostles  and  their  followers  must  have  been  supernatu- 
rally  withheld  from  recording  a  great  part  of  the  institutions, 
instructions,  and  regulations,  which  must,  in  point  of  fact, 
have  proceeded  from  them  ;  withheld  on  purpose  that  the 
other  churches,  in  other  ages  and  regions,  might  not  be  led 
to  consider  themselves  bound  to  adhere  to  the  several  for- 
mularies, customs,  and  rules  that  were  of  local  and  tempo- 
rary appointment,  but  might  be  left  to  their  own  discretion 
in  matters  in  which  it  seemed  best  to  Divine  Wisdom  that 
they  should  be  so  left." 

Whately,  in  his  defence  of  Episcopacy,  takes  the  ground 


§  28.       THE    IDEA    OF    THE    PASTORAL    OFFICE.  377 

that  there  is  nothing  in  this  system  contrary  to  Scripture ; 
and  on  the  consideration  that  the  matter  of  church  form 
was  left  to  the  wisdom  of  the  church,  and  was  a  secon- 
dary question,  he  thinks  that  the  Episcopal  form  is  the 
best,  and  historically  the  oldest.  While  not  controverting 
the  riofht  of  other  believers  to  maintain  different  views  of 
church  policy,  and  of  the  peculiar  form  of  the  pastoral 
office  in  its  outward  aspects,  we  hold  to  the  simple  idea  of 
the  ministry  as  more  scriptural  and  more  accordant  with  the 
genius  of  the  gospel.  We  hold,  also,  that  not  only  a  min- 
istry is  distinctly  established  in  the  Scriptures,  but  that  the 
regularly  ordained  Christian  "  pastor  "  may  and  should  unite 
in  himself  alone,  all  the  titles,  virtues,  duties,  gifts,  and 
rights,  that  are  bestowed  in  the  entire  New  Testament  upon 
this  divinely  instituted  office. 

§  28.     The  Idea  of  the  Pastoral  Office. 

There  are  certain  prevalent  ideas  of  the  pastoral  office 
which  are  erroneous  and  injurious,  but  which,  nevertheless, 
are  held  by  large  numbers ;  and  let  us  notice  these  before 
endeavoring  to  set  forth  the  true  idea  of  the  Christian  min- 
istry. 

1.  That  it  forms  a  distinct  ecclesiastical  order ^  or  superior 
sacerdotal  class,  in  the  Christian  church.  While  we  do  not 
deny  that  the  individual  minister  may  have  his  own  proper 
rights  and  honorable  place  in  the  church,  yet  we  hold  that  the 
ministers  of  the  church,  taken  together  as  a  body,  do  not  form 
a  separate  order,  or  a  distinct  superior  class,  in  the  church. 
That  the  ministry  is  not  thus  an  exclusive  order,  further  than 
any  institution,  divinely  established  for  a  special  work,  consti- 
tutes an  order,  might  be  proved,  (a.)  From  Scripture,  from 
a  class  of  passages  similar  to  the  one  in  2  Cor.  4:5, 
"For  ive  preach  not  ourselves,  but  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord; 
and  ourselves  your  servants  for  Jesus'  sake;  "  from  the 
examples  of  the  apostles ;  from  the  essential  unity  of  the 
32* 


378  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

church  and  of  church  members ;  and,  above  all,  from  the 
example  of  Christ,  the  antitype  of  pastors,  as  in  Phil.  2  : 
7,  Matt.  20  :  27  ;  and  from  the  lessons  of  Christ's  humility, 
as  when  he  washed  the  feet  of  his  disciples.  (5.)  From  a 
Christianized  reason.  Vinet  compares  ministers  to  officers 
in  an  army.^  They  have  a  certain  official  preeminence,  it 
is  true,  conferred  on  them ;  but  the  captains  by  themselves 
do  not  form  a  peculiar  class  or  order,  nor  do  the  colonels, 
nor  do  the  generals  ;  they  are  all  soldiers;  all  rise  from  the 
bosom  of  the  army,  being  made  officers  only  for  greater 
service  and  division  of  labor,  and  not  to  create  a  new  pecu- 
liar body  or  order  of  men.  This  illustration,  it  must  be 
said,  is  drawn  from  an  ideal  army,  rather  than  from  one  of 
the  common  character  of  armies.  Yet  the  French  or  Na- 
poleonic idea  of  the  army  —  that  every  member,  through 
capacity  and  distinguished  conduct,  is  eligible  to  the  highest 
office,  and  that  the  officers  are  taken  thus  from  the  body  of  the 
army  —  is  the  main  idea  of  the  illustration.  Vinet  again  says, 
more  explicitly,  "The  ministry  does  not  form  a  caste.  It 
does  not  form  a  body,  except  accidentally.  The  accident  is 
certainly  frequent,  but  it  still  remains  an  accident.  Existence 
as  a  body  is  not  essential  to  the  ministry.  To  conclude  in 
a  word,  the  ecclesiastical  ministry  is  a  consecration,  made 
under  conditions,  of  particular  members  of  a  Christian  flock, 
to  be  occupied  specially,  but  not  to  the  exclusion  of  others, 
in  the  administration  of  worship  and  care  of  souls.  A  reli- 
gious society  may,  moreover,  direct  that  the  solemnities 
which  bring  it  together  shall  be  presided  over  exclusively 
by  those  special  men  whom  it  calls  ministers  or  pastors."^ 
To  endeavor  to  create  this  ministerial  order  or  caste,  to- 
ward which  some  persons  seem  to  be  always  edging,  is  con- 
trary to  a  sound  Christian  instinct,  and  is  beneath  the  simple 
Christian  idea  of  the  ministry.  The  church  was  made  be- 
fore its  ministry :  ministers  are   its  servants,  endowed  by 

»  Pastoral  Theology,  p.  46.  ^  Idem,  p.  50. 


§  28.      IDEA   OF   THE   PASTORAL   OFFICE. 


379 


it  with  juithority  to    serve.      The  ministry  is  a    distinct 
and    permanent  office  in  the  church  of  Christ,  —  that  we 

hold, but  we  do   not  believe  that  ministers  of  and  by 

themselves  form  any  distinct  and  superior  order  in  the 
church.  As  our  office  is  divinely  instituted  and  guided,  let 
us  honor  it  and  magnify  it ;  but  we  shall  do  this  best,  not  by 
attempting  to  give  it  a  merely  human  rank,  but  by  preserving 
the  pure  and  consecra'ted  spirit  which  characterized  its  origi- 
nal and  divine  institution.  The  true  ground  of  ministerial 
precedence,  or  dignity,  is  stated  in  1  Thess.  5  :  12,  that 
ministers  should  be  honored  ''for  their  works'  sake."  It  is  a 
hio-hly  honorable  office ;  and  while  it  is  not  an  exclusive 
order  in  the  church,  yet  the  words  anciently  spoken  to  the 
church  still  remain  obligatory  in  some  true  sense.  "  Obej/ 
them  that  have  the  rule  over  you,  and  submit  yourselves,  for 
they  watch  for  your  souls,  as  they  that  must  give  account, 
that  they  may  do  it  ivith  joy,  and  not  ivith  grief" 
2.  That  it  is  -a  priesthood. 

What  is  a  priest  ?  "  He  is  one  who  stands  as  mediator  be- 
tween God  and  his  people,  and  brings  the  people  of  God  by 
reason  of  certain  ceremonial  acts  which  he  performs  for 
them,  and  which  they  could  not  perform  for  themselves 
without  profanation,  because  they  are  at  a  distance  from 
God,  and  cannot  in  their  own  persons  approach  him."  Chris- 
tianity has  done  away  with  the  need  and  fact  of  such  a  me- 
diating priesthood.  The  priestly  idea  of  the  ministry  arose 
in  the  Christian  church,  first  through  corrupting  Jewish 
teachers  in  the  great  Gentile  cities,  when  the  power  of  Juda- 
ism was  broken  up  at  home.  Pagan  priestly  ideas  helped  to 
increase  the  error ;  and  these  ideas,  growing  stronger  and 
stronger  for  centuries,  received  their  final  and  perfect  crys- 
tallization in  the  Papal  system  of  priesthood,  and  formally, 
in  the  twenty-third  session  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  when  it 
was  decreed  that  "  if  any  one  shall  say  that  there  is  not  in 
the  New  Testament  a  visible  and  external  priesthood,  or 
that  there  is  no  power  in  it  of  consecrating  and  ottering  the 


380  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

body  and  blood  of  the  Lord,  and  of  remitting  and  retaining 
sins,  but  only  an  office  of  the  bare  ministry  of  preaching  the 
gospel,  or  that  those  Avho  do  not  preach  the  gospel  are  not 
priests,  let  him  be  anathema."  Without  going  to  this  ex- 
treme, other  churches,  which  admit  the  hierarchical  element, 
have  a  tendency  to  regard  the  clergy  as  "  the  legitimate  chan- 
nel of  communication  with  God" — as  the  " depository  of 
divine  grace "  —  as  the  only  efficacious  administrators  of 
the  holy  rites.  In  this  view,  when  it  is  carried  to  an  ex- 
treme, the  eucharist  becomes  a  "sacrifice,"  and  the  minister 
the  "priest;  "  baptism  is  a  regenerating  ordinance,  and  the 
minister  a  dispenser  of  the  Holj^  Spirit ;  and  thus,  logically, 
he  is  empowered  with  authority  to  procure  and  proclaim 
absolution  of  sins.  This  idea  of  the  priesthood  of  the 
Christian  ministry  is  erroneous  and  hurtful :  (1.)  Because 
contrary  to  /Scripture.  The  New  Testament  ministry  strove 
to  avoid  being  considered  merely  ceremonial,  or  ritual  in- 
struments ;  Paul  thanked  God  that  he  had  baptized  so  few. 
While  in  the  Scriptures  all  Christians  are  called  "  a  holy 
priesthood  "  through  Christ,  there  is  but  one  passage  in  the 
New  Testament  where  a  Christian  minister  is  called  a 
"priest" —  in  Eom.  15  :  16  ;  and  here  the  apostle  does  not 
call  himself  a  "priest,"  but  onlj''  compares  himself  to  the 
Jewish  priesthood,  using  the  term  in  an  illustrative  or  figu- 
rative sense  :  this  omission  would  seem  to  settle  the  ques- 
tion. 'That  which  is  called  "the  power  of  the  keys"  is  a 
judicial  attribute  belonging  to  the  whole  church,  —  minister 
and  people,  —  rather  than  a  sacerdotal  attribute,  belonging 
exclusively  to  the  ministry.  Pastor  Harms,  indeed,  held  it 
to  be  a  ministerial  function  ;  and  F.  W.  Robertson  felt  that 
once  in  his  life  he  pronounced  judicial  sentence  upon  a 
sinner.  But  the  apostles,  as  in  Acts  3  :  12,  indignantly 
repelled  the  idea  of  any  peculiar  or  priestly  sacredness  to 
be  ascribed  to  themselves.  (2.)  Because  it  is  derogatory/ 
to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  it  diminishes  his  great  and  per- 
manent work  of  mediation,  impugns  his  unchangeable  and 


§  28.      IDEA    OF    THE    PASTORAL    OFFICE.  381 

incommunicable  priesthood,  and  thus  tends  to  subvert  pure 
faith.  Every  believer  has  a  personal,  direct,  Immediate  rela- 
tion to  God,  and  may,  in  Christ's  name,  offer  the  intercessory 
prayer,  although  Christ  is  really  the  only  intercessor ;  and 
while  all  believers  are  made  in  Christ  "priests  unto  God," 
there  is,  and  can  be,  really  but  one  "  priest,"  in  whom  all  have 
access  by  a  common  faith  to  the  Father.  ^^  For  there  is  one 
God,  and  one  Mediator  beticeeuGod  and  men,  the  man  Christ 
Jesus,  ivho  gave  himself  a  ransom  for  all."  (3.)  Because  it 
is  contrary  to  the  nature  and  design  of  the  Christian  church. 
It  gradually  and  resistlessly  shapes  the  church  after  itself 
into  a  hierarchy  of  which  the  clergy  become  the  prescriptive 
rulers :  in  fiict,  where  this  idea  decidedly  predominates,  the 
bishops  and  inferior  clergy  are  considered  as  properly  con- 
stituting the  church,  and  the  people  are  as  an  adjunct  or 
ornament  pinned  on  to  the  clergy.  Powers  are  assumed 
by  the  church  (thus  appropriated  by  the  clergy)  which 
belong  only  to  Christ ;  the  means  of  grace  are  made  the 
authors  of  grace ;  the  instrument  is  viewed  as  the  power, 
or  source  of  power,  until,  in  the  minds  of  the  more  ignorant 
and  unthinking,  the  mediatorship  is  transferred  from  the 
divine  Saviour  to  the  human  ecclesiastic — the  logical  and 
tremendous  consequence  of  this  idea,  which  is,  and  has  been, 
a  fruitful  source  of  evil  in  the  church.  (4.)  Because  it 
is  singularly  affiliated  with  a  certain  resistless  downward 
tendency  in  human  nature  to  serve  God  by  proxy.  Men 
naturally  love  an  easy  religion,  a  religion  which,  without 
requiring  of  them  great  personal  service  and  sacrifice,  at  the 
same  time  soothes  and  satisfies  the  religious  sentiment ;  and 
good  men  are  sometimes  not  naturally  indisposed  to  take 
upon  themselves  great  labors,  and  toils,  and  responsibilities 
for  others,  if,  by  so  doing,  they  become,  in  some  sense, 
the  keepers  of  consciences,  and  the  sources  of  religious 
authority. 

While  we  thus  strongly  affirm  that  the  Christian  ministry 
is  not  a  "  priesthood,"  neither  in  the  Hebrew  nor  Romish 


382  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

sense,  and  while  we  would  not  retain  "  a  rag  or  tag"  of  that 
erroneous  theory,  jet  we  would  not  deny  that  certain  senti- 
ments which  are  derived  from  the  ancient  priestly  office  in 
the  church,  may  not  still  irresistibly  and  innocently  linger 
about  the  office  of  the  Christian  ministry  :  for  example,  the 
pastor  is  especially  called  upon  to  pray  for  his  people,  even 
as  Christ,  the  true  Intercessor,  intercedes  for  them  ;  and  then, 
too,  there  is  a  natural  desire  or  impulse  in  men  to  confess  their 
faults  to  their  fellow-men, — the  child  confesses  his  wrong 
doings  to  his  mother,  and  finds  relief,  —  and  so,  to  a  certain 
extent,  so  far  as  the  pastor  is  worthy  of  such  trust,  and 
so  far  as  the  confession  is  made  spontaneously,  and  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  religious  counsel,  he  naturally  and 
properly  receives,  in  reference  to  spiritual  doubts,  fears, 
and  even  sometimes  sins,  the  confidence  of  his  people. 
Something,  too,  of  the  priestly  office,  in  the  case  of  sickness, 
affliction,  and  death,  where  the  power  of  souls  to  act  for 
themselves  is  enfeebled,  is  manifested  in  the  ministrations 
of  the  pastor;  but  these  are  solely  ideas,  sentiments,  and 
voluntary  expressions  of  pious  service  and  fraternal  sym- 
j3athy,  and  in  no  sense  are  they  the  result  of  a  divinely 
appointed  priestly  office  which  plays  the  part  of  mediator 
in  spiritual  things. 

3.  That  it  is  a  merely  temporar}''  relation  of  ^^  guide ^  phi- 
losopher, and  friend.'^ 

The  office  has  degenerated  into  something  like  this  in 
religious  denominations  that  do  not  recognize  the  need  of 
faith  in  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  which  is  the  root  of  the 
Christian  ministry  ;  and  it  amounts  to  this  with  some  of  the 
most  extreme  of  them  —  that  advantage  is  taken  of  a  cus- 
tomary official  solemnity  to  appoint  a  man  to  preach  him- 
self, to  teach  his  own  moral  and  philosophical  opinions,  or 
to  disseminate  them  with  somewhat  more  of  ex  cathedrd 
authority. 

There  is,  also,  a  tendency  among  evangelical  bodies,  and 
ministers,  to  secularize  the  divine  office,  and  to  consider  it 


§  28.       IDEA    OF   THE    PASTOEAL   OFFICE.  383 

a  conventional  or  business  relationship,  in  which  the  minister 
is  paid  for  his  work,  and  there  is  no  debt  incurred  on  either 
side  ;  but  in  this  way  the  pastor  destroys  the  foundation  on 
which  he  stands,  and  denies  the  only  right  he  has  to  preach 
and  teach  others.  If  this  right  or  relation  is  actually  nothing 
more  than  that  of  a  friend,  no  man  has  authority  to  set  him- 
self up  as  a  religious  teacher  of  other  men.  That  the  rela- 
tion of  a  pastor  to  his  people  is,  on  the  contrary,  a  higher 
spiritual  relationship,  and  thus  in  some  sense  a  sacred  and 
eternal  one,  we  see, — 

(a.)  Because  it  is  a  divine  institution.  (5.)  Because  the 
minister  deals  with  eternal  truths,  (c)  Because  at  the  eter- 
nal judgment  he  must  give  an  account  of  his  stewardship  as 
a  pastor  of  souls.  (cZ.)  Because  his  teachings,  labors,  aims, 
and  life,  all  tell  upon  an  eternal  destiny  ;  his  is  no  temporary 
service,  (e.)  Because  the  mutual  relations  of  a  pastor  and 
people  are  not  those  of  intellectual  admiration,  or  sentimen- 
tal atfection,  or  interested  friendship,  but  those  of  regen- 
erated and  sanctified  hearts,  which  relations  are  eternal. 

Yet,  as  is  true  of  the  two  former  views  of  the  ministrj^ 
which  were  erroneous  when  objectively  viewed  as  a  whole, 
but  which  yet  had  something  true  in  them  in  a  reflective 
and  partial  sense,  so  in  the  relation  upon  which  we  have 
just  animadverted  there  is  contained  something  that  al- 
wa3'^s  and  universally  applies  to  the  ofiice  of  the  ministry. 
The  Christian  pastor  is,  or  ought  to  be,  the  true  guide,  phi- 
losopher, and  friend  of  his  people ;  for  he  teaches  them  the 
highest  philosophy  —  that  which  centralizes  and  harmonizes 
truth  ;  he  strives  for  their  best  welfare  —  that  of  their  souls  ; 
and  he  actually  guides  them  into  the  way  of  eternal  life.  And 
in  common  life,  in  all  ordinary  and  social  relations,  he  is 
the  sincere  and  unselfish  friend  of  his  people,  he  gives  them 
his  aid  ireely ,  ^' without  money  and  ivithout  price  "  and  is 
able  truly  to  call  them,  and  they  to  call  him,  "  betoved." 

Other  false,  perverted,  or  exaggerated  ideas  of  the  pas- 
toral office  might  be  noticed  ;    but  we  would  now  directly 


384  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

state,  in  but  a  few  words,  what  we  conceive  to  be,  iu  the 
main,  the  true  idea  of  the  ministry. 

The  Christian  ministry  is  a  divinely  appointed  and  divinely 
guided  office  in  the  church,  to  soio  the  "woj^d  of  God,"  which 
is  the  gospel  of  Jesiis  Christ,  in  the  hearts  of  men,  that  they 
may  learn  to  love  and  serve  the  living  God,  and  to  lead  lives 
of  active  benevolence  and  goodness,  in  imitation  of  Christ. 
That  is  its  fundamental  idea  and  design.  The  ministry  is  a 
"  ministry  of  the  word."  The  minister  is  "  the  man  who 
speaks  the  word  of  God ;  he  does  not  recite  it.  The  priest 
was  a  slave,  but  the  minister  has  a  free  intercourse  with 
God."  ^  There  are  other  subordinate  ideas  of  the  ministry. 
It  is  a  special  office  of  the  church,  to  serve  the  church  iu 
various  ways. 

The  minister  presides  in  the  business  affairs  of  the  church  ; 
he  conducts  the  public  worship ;  he  exercises  care  for  the 
moral  and  spiritual  interests  of  his  people,  by  daily  personal 
ministrations ;  he  administers  the  rites  of  baptism  and  the 
Lord's  supper ;  he  oversees  the  charities  of  the  church,  and 
attends  upon  the  wants  of  the  poor,  the  sick,  and  the  afflict- 
ed ;  he  prepares  candidates  for  admission  to  the  church,  and 
has  a  regulative  voice  in  the  church's  discipline  ;  he  guides 
the  spiritual  and  benevolent  activities  of  his  people ;  and, 
perhaps,  one  half  of  his  actual  efficiency  for  good  lies  out- 
side of  the  pulpit,  in  what  may  be  strictly  called  his  pasto- 
ral duties ;  but  in  all  he  is  still  engaged  in  sowing  the  good 
word  of  God  in  the  hearts  of  men,  and  in  building  up  the 
kingdom  of  truth. 

Although  this  divine  word  that  he  dispenses  is  found  in 
man,  in  nature,  in  all  things,  yet  Christ's  minister  finds  it 
chiefly  in  Christ's  words,  in  the  Scriptures  of  truth,  with  the 
Holy  Spirit  as  their  interpreter ;  therefore  he  must  himself 
know  in  order  to  teach ;  he  must  teach  men  in  the  spirit  of 

'  Vinet's  Pastoral  Theology,  p.  24. 


§  29.       THE    MODEL    OF    THE    PASTOR.  385 

Christ ;  and  here  is  the  deepest  idea  of  the  pastoral  office : 
to  dispense  the  word  of  Christ  in  the  power,  spirit,  and  love 
of  Christ,  that  Ave  may  be  "  able  ministers  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament; not  of  the  letter,  but  of  the  spirit;  for  the  letter  Jcill- 
eth,  but  the  spirit  giveth  life." 

We  cite  a  few  texts  setting  forth  and  confirming  this 
conception  of  the  design  of  the  pastoral  office :  Matt.  28  : 
19,  20  ;  Acts  4  :  29  ;  6  :  4  ;  20  :  24,  28  ;  Rom.  10  :  14,  15  ; 
1  Cor.  1  :  17  ;  1  :  21  ;  2:4;  2  Cor.  4:1,2;  2:17;  2  Tim. 
1  :  13  ;  2  :  15  ;  4:1;  Titus  1:3;  1:9;  1  Pet.  4  ;  11. 

The  Christian  pastor  should  pray  with  Paul  (Gal.  1  :  16), 
"to  reveal  his  Son  in  me,  that  I  might  preach  him;" 
and  he  should  be  able  to  say,  also,  with  the  apostle 
(2  Cor.  4:  5),  "For  we  preach  not  ourselves,  but  Christ 
Jesus  the  Lord,  and  ourselves  your  servants  for  Jesuit  sake" 

§  29.     The  Model  of  the  Pastor. 

There  are  strong  pointings  of  Scripture  to  the  actual  as 
well  as  the  ideal  "pastor"  of  men,  who,  in  all  ages,  has  fed 
and  guided  their  souls,  not  only  through  the  "green  pas- 
tures," but  through  the  "wilderness:"  who  nourished  them 
with  the  bread  of  life,  not  only  in  the  Desert  of  Sinai,  but 
by  the  shore  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee.  1  Peter  2  :  25,  "The 
chief  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  our  souls."  Matt.  23  :  10, 
"Neither  be  ye  called  masters;  for  one  is  your  Blaster,  even 
Christ."  Matt.  28 :  20,  "  Teaching  them  to  observe  all 
things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you ;  and  I  am  with 
you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 

Such  passages  point  to  the  great  model,  whose  example 
the  pastor  should  follow,  and  who  was  himself  the  "good" 
or  perfect  "Shepherd."  This  is  a  truth  which  has  been 
already  touched  upon,  and  is  obvious ;  but  it  is  exceedingly 
important  that  it  should  be  fixed  early  and  deeply  in  the 
pastor's  mind.  The  character  of  Jesus,  it  is  true,  forbids 
his  possible  classification,  in  all  respects,  with  men;  yet 
33 


386  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

he  was  a  true  man,  and  he  said  to  his  earliest  disciples, 
*^Come  after  me,  and  I  will  make  you  fishers  of  menJ"  And 
they  did  follow  him  ;  tliey  learned  his  patient  and  gentle 
ways  of  dealing  with  men  ;  they  learned  his  mode  of  teach- 
ing ;  they  cauglit  his  lofty  and  loving  spirit.  The  apostle 
Paul  considered  Christ  to  be  his  model  as  a  pastor,  as  well 
as  a  Christian  ;  and  living  pastors,  looking  beyond  Paul, 
Peter,  and  John,  and  every  human  example,  should  do  the 
same. 

AVhen  George  Herbert  took  holy  orders,  he  said,  "I  will 
consecrate  all  my  learning  and  all  my  poor  abilities  to  ad- 
vance the  glory  of  that  God  that  gave  them,  knowing  that 
I  can  never  do  too  much  for  Him  that  hath  done  so  much 
for  me  as  to  make  me  a  Christian  ;  and  /  will  labor  to  he  like 
my  Saviour,  by  making  humility  lovely  in  the  eyes  of  all 
men,  and  by  following  the  merciful  and  meek  example  of 
my  dear  Jesus." 

We  cannot  go  into  a  minute  analysis  of  those  qualities 
of  character  and  action  in  which  a  pastor  should  strive  to 
be  like  Christ ;  but  we  would  desire  to  mark  impressively 
the  fiict  that  the  pastor  should  look  through  and  beyond 
every  other  model  up  to  Christ.  There  are  four  points 
where  Christ  meets  man  as  pastor,  or  guide  :  in  his  mental, 
moral,  affectional,  and  spiritual  being;  and  on  these  he 
should  especially  fix  his  attention. 

1.  As  a  teacher.  It  is  an  animating  thought  that  ^Hhe 
word  which  2ve  preach  first  began  to  be  spoken  of  the  Lord." 
Christ's  teaching,  as  we  have  before  characterized  it,  was 
personal,  addressed  to  the  individual  —  to  what  essentially 
constitutes  the  individual — his  true  self.  The  pastor's 
teaching  should  have  this  personal  directness  and  earnest 
aim ;  it  should  go  deep,  and  reach  the  enduring  principles 
and  choices  of  the  soul,  which  make  character,  which  a  man 
carries  with  him  into  eternity.  It  should  not  play  about  the 
intellect,  nor  even  address  wholly  the  conscience,  but  should 
aim  at  the  ruling  will,  affections,  and  spirit. 


§  29.      THE   MODEL   OF   THE    PASTOR.  387 

As  to  the  manner  of  our  Lord's  teacliinir,  it  was,  srener- 
ally  speaking,  to  drop  the  word  of  life  in  the  soul  as  a  seed, 
rather  than  as  a  fully-developed  truth ;  and  then  the  soul 
itself,  in  its  own  life  and  growth,  might  take  up  this  truth, 
and  bring  it  to  its  perfect  maturity  by  its  own  thought  and 
voluntary  act,  while  it  is  watered  and  helped  from  on  high. 
Thus  the  truth  became  incorporated  in  the  being,  while  the 
soul  was  left  freely  to  do  its  part.  Christ  did  not  make  all 
plain,  but  sought  to  arouse  in  the  soul  itself  the  sense  of 
God,  of  human  dependence,  of  sin,  of  the  need  of  redemp- 
tion, repentance,  faith,  and  praj^er.'  The  source  of  every 
teacher's  success  is  to  have  "faith  in  the  power  of  truth, 
as  adapted  to  change  the  moral  condition  of  men,  and  thus 
to  bring  in  a  better  life." 

There  are  some  things  in  Christ's  teaching  which  should 
not,  and  cannot,  be  followed ;  as,  for  example,  his  infallible 
assertion  of  truth  on  his  own  authority ;  but  in  his  method 
of  teaching,  his  simplicity,  naturalness,  adaptation,  gentle- 
ness, we  are  to  make  him  our  model. 

2.  As  a  character  of  moral  blamelessness.  Christ's  power 
as  guide  and  pastor  of  other  men  arose  from  the  fact  that  he 
"  zvas  without  sin."  By  his  obedience  to  the  law,  and  by  the 
power  of  his  goodness,  he  opened  every  prison  door,  and 
proclaimed  liberty  to  every  captive.  His  goodness  gave  to 
his  sacrifice  a  profound  merit,  and  made  it  able  to  cleanse 
eiu  from  the  depths  of  the  soul.  Because  of  his  perfect 
goodness,  men  might  put  their  trust  in  him  to  feed  them 
with  the  bread  of  everlasting  life.  The  minister  of  his 
pure  gospel  should  pray  and  strive  to  approximate  more 
nearly  to  the  blamelessness  of  Christ,  and  to  appropriate 
more  of  his  moral  purity,  knowing  that  every  gain  in  good- 
ness is  a  gain  in  power;  and  we  are,  moreover,  commanded 
to  be  "  holy  as  he  is  holy ;  "  to  be  ^^ followers  of  God  as  dear 
children." 

'  Neander's  Life  of  Christ,  Hooper's  ed.,  p.  106. 


388  •  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

3.  As  one  ivlio  had  true  sympathy  with  men.  Christ 
shared  in  all  things  human.  In  the  body,  mind,  and  spirit 
of  man,  and  all  their  varied  wants  and  experiences,  he 
truly  entered.  He  was  even  ^Hempted  like  as  ive  are,  yet 
without  sm."  He  is,  therefore,  "touched  ivith  a  feeling  of 
our  infirmities"  for  he  was  himself  tried  and  tempted.  Ne- 
ander  says,  in  his  Life  of  Christ,  he  became  human,  "so 
that  his  soul  might  be  moved  to  its  depths  by  sympathy 
with  the  sufferings  of  mankind  on  account  of  sin."  That 
noble  word  "sympathy"  {avf-n<!idoi) — "suffering  with,"  be- 
ins'  in  common  in  the  very  same  thinijs  that  we  do  and  suffer 
—  Christ  perfectly  realized.  He  showed  "a  special,  sep- 
arate, discriminating  sympathy,  as  in  the  case  of  erring 
Peter,  derided  Zaccheus,  and  the  dead  Lazarus."  Some- 
thing of  this  Christ-like  power  of  sympathy  every  true 
pastor  should  have  ;  and  yet,  perhaps,  here  is  often  the 
most  profound  failure.  There  may  be  sometimes  every 
other  quality  but  this.  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  said  (with  a 
touch  of  fanatical  yet  noble  extravagance) ,  "  If  it  has  pleased 
God  to  employ  weak  men  for  the  conversion  of  some  souls, 
these  souls  have  themselves  confessed  that  it  was  by  the  pa- 
tience and  sympathy  which  had  been  shoAvn  them.  Even  the 
convicts  among  whom  I  have  lived  can  be  gained  in  no  other 
way.  When  I  have  kissed  their  chains,  and  showed  them 
compassion  for  their  distress,  and  sensibility  for  their  dis- 
grace, then  they  have  listened  to  me,  then  they  have  given 
glory  to  God,  and  placed  themselves  in  the  way  of  salva- 
tion." Men  do  not  Avant  outer  charity  as  much  as  they  want 
real  sympathy  and  love.  One  ray  of  that  is  worth  more  to 
the  pastor,  to  melt  men's  proud,  suspicious  hearts,  than  to 
play  on  them  for  years  the  cold  splendors  of  the  intellect. 
Those  were  remarkable  words  of  Serjeant  Talfourd,  shortly 
before  his  death  :  "  What  the  thirsting  and  perishing  nations 
of  men  long  for  is  not  benevolence,  but  sympathy  —  the 
brother's  heart  to  be  show^u  to  them."  This  quality  is  not 
weak  sensibility,  but  the  action  of  true  love,  the  spirit  of 


§  29.      THE   MODEL   OF   THE   PASTOR.  389 

the  cross  in  its  real  operation,  which  is  the  power  of  God 
to  draw  and  save.  Vinet  has  some  beautiful  remarks  on 
this  point  (Pas.  Theol.,  p.  34).  He  says,  "Still,  all  these 
metaphors,  all  the  additional  passages,  do  not  attain  to  the 
complete  sum  of  the  elements  of  the  ministry — to  the  ideal 
of  a  pastor.  We  have  need  of  a  type,  a  model,  a  personifi- 
cation of  each  idea.  Where  shall  we  look  first?  If  any 
one  has  been  the  type  of  man,  he  has  been,  at  the  same 
time,  the  type  of  a  pastor ;  for  it  is  impossible  that  the 
pastor  should  not  make  a  part  of  the  ideal  of  man ;  impos- 
sible that  he  in  whom  the  perfection  of  human  nature  was 
fully  represented  should  not  have  been  a  pastor.  This  new 
man,  this  second  Adam,  could  not  have  been  such  except 
by  love.  The  first  object  of  love  is  that  which  is  immortal 
in  man.  It  is,  then,  upon  the  soul  that  love  will  chiefly 
exercise  itself;  and  as  we  cannot  do  good  to  the  soul  except 
through  its  regeneration,  and  as  it  cannot  be  regenerated 
except  by  the  truth,  to  nourish  the  soul  with  truth,  to  feed 
it  thus  in  green  pastures,  and  along  tranquil  waters,  was 
necessarily  the  office  of  a  perfect  man,  of  the  type  of  man. 
He  must  have  been  a  pastor." 

4-  As  one  who  had  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice.  This,  in- 
deed, is  the  natural  result  and  crowning  grace  of  the  pasto- 
ral spirit.  Our  Saviour's  love  went  to  the  perfect  surrender 
of  himself  for  those  he  loved ;  to  the  lajing  down  of  his 
life.  Brainerd,  when  he  labored  among  the  Indians,  said 
that  "he  thought  of  nothing  else,  he  cared  for  nothing  else, 
but  their  conversion.  He  dreamed  of  it  in  the  night,  and 
he  lived  for  it  in  the  day."  A  passage  from  F.  W.  Robert- 
son's letter  to  a  friend  about  to  become  a  settled  pastor  is 
an  afiecting  illustration  of  this  point:  "Most  sincerely  I 
congratulate  you  on  your  prospect  of  a  curacy,  but  much 
more  on  the  approach  of  the  highest  earthly  honor,  —  the 
privilege  of  working  for  Christ,  —  and  welcome  you  to  a 
participation  of  its  joys  and  sorrows.  Perhaps  the  latter 
predominate  here,  but  they  are  not  Avorthy  to  be  compared 
33* 


390  •  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

to  the  joys  which  shall  be  revealed  in  us,  if  we  suffer  with 
him.  I  think  the  strictness  of  self-examination  for  minis- 
terial fitness  is  contained  in  that  solenjn,  searching  question 
of  our  Lord,  thrice  repeated,  'Simon,  son  of  Jonas,  lovest 
thou  me  more  than  these  ? '  And  if  we  can  answer  from  our 
inmost  souls,  as  Peter  did,  'Lord,  thou  knowest  all  things, 
thou  knowest  that  I  love  thee,'  I  believe  the  injunction  which 
follows,  and  the  warning  of  martyrdom,  woukl  be  received 
with  equal  joy  as  our  Master's  will.  I  am  sensible  that  it 
is  a  test  that  makes  me  humble." 

§  30.     Tlie  Call  to  the  Ministrij. 

We  will  consider  briefly  the  necessity ^  nature,  and  signs 
of  a  divine  call  to  the  ministry. 

1.  Necessity  of  a  divine  call.  This  is  seen, — 
(a.)  From  Scripture.  The  scriptural  idea  of  the  minis- 
try being  that  of  one  who  undertakes  a  particular  charge 
or  work,  this  implies  the  special  calling  or  sending  of  him 
who  is  to  do  the  special  work.  In  the  Old  Testament  we 
find  this  idea  expressed.  Numbers  18  :  7,  '' I  have  given  your 
priesfs  office  unto  you  as  a  service  of  gift;  and  the  stranger 
that  conieth  nigh  shall  be  2^ut  to  death."  Is.  6  :  8,  "Here 
am  J,  O  Lord;  send  ine."  Is.  61  :  1,  "The  spirit  of  the 
Lord  God  is  upon  me;  because  the  Lord  hath  anointed  me 
to  preach  good  tidings  unto  the  meeJc;  he  hath  sent  7ne 
to  bind  up  the  broken  hearted."  Jer.  1:  4-7,  '^  Then  the 
word  of  the  Lord  came  upon  me,  saying,  Before  I  formed 
thee  in  the  belly,  I  knew  thee;  and  before  thou  earnest  forth 
out  of  the  womb  I  sanctified  thee,  and  I  ordained  thee  a 
prophet  unto  the  nations.  Then  said  I,  Ah,  Lord  God  I 
Behold,  I  cannot  speak ;  for  I  am  a  child.  But  the  Lord 
said  unto  me,  Say  not,  I  am  a  child;  for  thou  shall  go  to  all 
that  I  shall  send  thee,  and  whatsoever  I  command  thee  thou 
shalt  speak."      Jer.  23:  32,  "Behold,  I  am  against  them 


§  30.   THE  CALL  TO  THE  MINISTRY.         391 

that  prophesy  false  dreams,  saith  the  Lord,  and  do  tell 
them,  and  cause  my  people  to  err  by  their  lies  and  by  their 
lightness;  yet  I  sent  them  not  nor  commanded  them;  there- 
fore they  shall  not  profit  their  people  at  all,  saith  the  Lord.^* 
He  who  being  unsent  preaches  God's  word,  preaches  to  lio 
profit ;  it  has  been  so  in  the  past,  and  it  is  so  now.  In  the 
New  Testament,  our  Lord  applied  to  his  own  ministry  the 
passage  in  Is.  61  :  1.  In  Matt.  3  :  16,  17,  the  baptism  of 
Christ  into  his  ministerial  work  is  described ;  and  in  Matt. 
17  :  5  is  contained  the  confirmation  of  Christ's  own  call  to 
preach  the  gospel. 

In  John  12  :  28-30,  Christ  appeals  to  the  fact  of  his 
being  called  to  preach  ;  and  through  him,  thus  divinely 
called,  all  other  Christian  ministers  have  their  vocation  to 
preach  the  gospel.  In  John  8,  Christ  speaks  of  himself  as 
the  only  door  into  this  ministry  ;  all  who  come  in  by  any  other 
way  are  thieves  and  robbers ;  he  only  is  a  true  shepherd 
who  is  appointed  by  the  chief  Shepherd.  John  20:  21, 
"  Then  said  Jesus  unto  them  again,  Peace  be  unto  you;  as 
my  Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you."  Acts  13  :  2, 
"  As  tJiey  ministered  to  the  Lord  and  fasted,  the  Holy  Ghost 
said,  Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Paid  for  the  work  where- 
unto  I  have  called  them."  AQts  20  :  28,  ^^  Tahe  heed  there- 
fore unto  yourselves,  and  to  all  the  floclcs  over  the  lohich  the 
Holy  Ghost  hath  7nade  you  overseers,  to  feed  the  church  of 
God."  1  Cor.  1,  ''Paul,  called  to  be  an  apostle  through  the 
loill  of  God."  Tit.  1:3,  "But  hath  in  due  times  manifested 
his  word  through  preaching,  which  is  committed  unto  me 
according  to  the  commandment  of  God  our  Saviour."  2 
Tim.  1:9,  ''Who  hath  saved  us,  and  called  us  with  a  holy 
calling."  This  language  might,  and  very  probably  does, 
refer  especially  to  a  calling  into  the  Christian  ministry, 
which  was  shared  both  by  Paul  and  Timothy. 

(6.)  From  the  best  human  testimony.  Luther's  language 
is  strong.  "  Expecta  vocantem ;  interim  esto  securus ;  imo  si 
esses  sapientior  ipso  Salomone  et  Daniele,  tamen,  nisi  voce- 


392  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

ris,  plus  quam  infernumfage,  ne  vei^huiii  effundas.  Si  tui 
eguerit,  vocabit  te.  Si  non  vocabit,  non  te  rumpai  scientia 
tua.  Nunquam  enim  Deusfortunat  laborem  eorum,  qui  non 
sunt  vocati;  et  quanquam  quoedam  salutaria  afferant,  tamen 
nihil  (Edificant.  E  regione,  magna  semper  fecerunt,  qui, 
Deo  vocanfe,  docuerinf."  In  his  commentary  upon  Gal.  1 : 
1,  Luther  says,  "  When  I  was  but  a  young  divine,  me- 
thought  Paul  did  unwisely  in  glorying  so  oft  of  his  calling 
in  all  his  Epistles  ;  but  I  did  not  understand  his  purpose,  for 
I  knew  not  that  the  ministry  of  God's  word  was  so  weighty 
a  matter." 

Bishop  Burnet,  in  his  Pastoral  Care  (cap.  7),  says,  "I 
wish  it  were  well  considered  by  all  clerks,  what  it  is  to  run 
without  being  called  or  sent ;  and  so  to  thrust  one's  self  into 
the  vineyard  without  being  called  or  sent ;  and  so  to  thrust 
one's  self  into  the  field,  without  staying  till  God,  by  his 
providence,  puts  a  piece  of  work  into  his  hands.  This  will 
give  a  man  a  vast  ease  in  his  thoughts,  and  a  great  satisfac- 
tion in  all  his  labors,  if  he  knows  that  no  practice  of  his 
own,  but  merely  the  directions  of  providence,  have  put  him 
in  a  post."  Also  in  cap.  6,  discussing  the  question  of  ordi- 
nation, he  asks  the  candidate,  "Do  you  trust  that  you  are 
inwardly  moved  by  the  Holy  |jhost  to  take  upon  you  this 
office?  Certainly  the  answer  of  this  ought  to  be  well  con- 
sidered ;  for  if  any  one  says,  *I  trust  so,' that  yet  knows 
nothing  of  any  such  motion,  and  can  give  no  account  of  it, 
he  lies  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  makes  his  first  approach  to 
the  altar  with  a  lie  in  his  mouth,  and  that  not  to  man,  but  to 
God." 

Philip  Henry,  in  answer  to  a  question  put  him  on  this 
point  at  his  ordination,  said,  "As  far  as,  upon  search  and 
inquiry,  I  can  hitherto  find,  though  there  be  that  within  me 
that  would  seek  great  things  for  myself  (if,  indeed,  they 
were  to  be  found  in  this  calling) ,  yet  with  my  mind  I  seek 
them  not.  But  the  improvement  of  the  talent  which  I  have 
received  in  the  service  of  the  gospel,  for  the  glory  of  God 


§   30.       THE   CALL   TO   THE    MINISTRY.  393 

and  the  salvation  of  souls,  I  hope  is  in  my  eyes.  If  there 
be  anything  else,  I  own  it  not  —  I  allow  it  not.  While  so 
many  'seek  their  own,'  it  is  my  desire,  and  it  shall  be  my 
endeavor,  to  '  seek  the  things  of  Jesus  Christ.' " 

Massillon,  in  one  of  his  clerical  charges,  says,  "If  you  do 
not  feel  in  yourselves  a  desire  of  being  employed  as  am- 
bassadors of  God,  judge  ye  yourselves,  whether  ye  are 
called  into  the  Lord's  vineyard.  God  implants  a  love  in  the 
heart  for  the  service  to  which  he  calls ;  and  better  would 
it  be  for  you  to  have  felt,  that  it  was  not  the  ministry 
for  which  you  were  intended,  than  that  j^ou  should  possess 
a  want  of  inclination  for  the  performance  of  its  duties.  It 
is  not  necessary  that  a  voice  from  heaven  should  say  to  you 
in  secret,  'The  Lord  has  not  sent  you.'  Your  judgment, 
confirmed  by  the  dictates  of  your  conscience,  tells  you  so." 

Vinet  (Pas.  Theol.  p.  76)  says,  "  We  must,  then,  be 
called  of  God.  A  call  to  the  ministry  which  is  exercised  in 
the  name  of  God,  and  in  which  he  is  represented,  can  em- 
anate only  from  him.  The  business  here,  in  fact,  is  not  ours  ; 
it  is  another's,  and  that  is  God ;  in  a  word,  it  is  a  ministry. 
Whether  external  or  internal,  the  call  ought  to  be  divine." 

(c.)  From  an  enlightened  CJiristian  conscience.  It  is 
God's  word  which  man  undertakes  to  preach,  and  he 
cannot  comprehend  that  word  unless  God  opens  it  to  him. 
To  preach  the  preaching  that  God  bids  him,  requires  an 
inward  revelation  of  a  man's  sinful  and  selfish  nature,  to 
enable  him  to  give  up  his  own  word,  or  his  own  method  of 
making  men  wise  and  holy,  and  to  proclaim  God's  wisdom 
unto  salvation.  And  again,  as  devotion  to  the  true  spirit 
of  any  work  is  the  only  way  to  succeed  in  it,  how  much 
more  is  this  true  in  relation  to  the  work  of  God  !  He  who 
enters  the  ministry,  as  Simon  Magus  did,  for  a  gift  of  power, 
does  not  touch  the  true  spirit  of  the  work,  and  will  surely 
draw  evil  upon  himself.  A  servant  of  Christ  should  strive 
to  find  his  own  work  ;  and  though  all  Christians  are  required 
to  work  for  the  advancement  of  God's  kingdom  and  the 


394  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

salvation  of  souls,  yet  all  Cbristiaus  are  not  called  to  the 
ministry. 

2.  Nature  of  a  divine  call. 

If  there  is  now  no  heavenly  voice,  nor  angelic  messenger 
sent  from  God,  in  what  does  this  divine  call  essentially  con- 
sist? Though  external  circumstances  may  have  a  pointing 
influence,  and  though  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  call  from 
outward  events,  —  the  '^  vocatio  externa"  as  it  was  once  learn- 
edly termed,  —  yet  we  must  consider  that  the  real  call  is  an 
internal  one,  or  the  ^'  vocatio  interna.''  The  first  is  a  negative 
call,  so  to  speak  ;  removing  obstacles,  making  the  way  plain, 
and  it  is  important  in  this  respect ;  but  the  last  is  a  posi- 
tive call  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  To  express  this  more  definitely, 
we  would  say,  that,  in  addition  to  the  fact  of  a  true  conver- 
sion, and  of  favoring  external  circumstances,  there  should 
exist  a  su])reme  desire  and  purpose  to  be  engaged  in  tlie  special 
work  of  preaching  the  gospel  for  the  salvation  of  souls  —  the 
-peculiar  worh  of  Christ.  This  should  be  a  real,  and  it  might 
be  said,  in  some  sense,  a  ruling  motive  of  the  mind.  The 
idea  is  expressed  by  Vinet  in  other  words  (Pas.  Theol., 
p.  82)  :  "If  the  ruling  motive  of  the  candidate  can  express 
itself  in  terms  which  define  the  institution  of  the  evangelical 
ministry,  it  is  a  good  one."  He  probably  means  by  this, 
that  if  a  man  thoroughl}'^  believes  the  truth  of  the  necessity 
of  Christ's  work  of  redeeming  men ;  that  through  faith  in 
the  Son  of  God,  men  are  to  be  converted  and  saved;  if  this 
truth  possesses  him,  fills  his  being,  awakes  in  him  a  ruliug 
motive,  an  irrepressible  desire  to  become  an  instrument, 
under  Christ,  in  bringing  about  this  blessed  reconciliation 
between  God  and  man,  that  God  should  beseech  man  by 
him  to  become  reconciled  to  God,  —  then  this  is  a  good  and 
holy  motive,  one  inspired  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  one  that 
constitutes  the  essence  of  a  true  call  to  the  ministry. 

A  writer  in  the  Congregational  Quarterly  adds  to  this 
idea  the  practical  one,  that  a  candidate  for  the  ministry 


§  30.       THE    CALL   TO   THE    MINISTRY.  395 

should  feel  willing  to  devote  his  life  to  this  work  —  not  a 
portion  of  it,  but  the  whole  of  it.  His  words  are,  "The 
internal  call,  or  the  call  of  the  Spirit,  is  an  impression  on  a 
person's  mind  which  he  feels  to  come  from  God  himself, 
through  the  circumstances  of  his  life,  or  the  emotions  of  his 
soul,  telling  him  that  he  ought  to  engage  in  the  labors  of 
the  ministry  as  his  life-work."^ 

This  is  taking  higher  ground  than  is  assumed  by  persons 
who  look  upon  a  call  to  the  ministry  as  consisting  in  nothing 
more  than  this  —  that  there  is  nothing  to  hinder  one  from 
being  a  minister.  This  is  good  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  it  has  no 
positive  element  or  real  call  in  it.  In  the  case  of  some 
candidates  for  the  ministry,  the  answer  given  to  the  ques- 
tion, "What  is  your  reason  for  thinking  you  are  called  to 
the  ministry?"  or,  "What  is  your  purpose  in  being  called 
to  the  ministry?"  frequently  is  this — that  he  enters  the 
ministry  "  because,  on  the  whole,  he  thinks  ho  can  do  the 
most  good  in  this  field."  This  does  not  seem  quite  satisfac- 
tory ;  for  the  ministry  must  be  entered  with  the  whole  heart, 
or  it  will  be  aweary,  unprofitable  service.  Doubtless  there 
are  many  men  who  are  pursuing  other  professions  who 
ought  to  be  in  the  ministry ;  but  for  one  entering  the  min- 
istry to  be  in  a  mental  condition  that  merely  reasons  upon 
and  balances  probabilities  as  to  future  usefuhiess,  this  does 
not,  we  think,  constitute  precisely  the  right  condition  of 
mind  in  which  to  take  up  such  a  work.  What  this  positive 
call  to  the  ministry  consists  in  may  be  a  more  difficult  ques- 
tion to  decide ;  but  it  would  seem  to  be  something  more 
marked  and  profound  than  this  intellectual  choice.  It  is 
something  more  than  a  simple  decision  of  the  understand- 
ing. There  is  in  it  a  decided  current  of  the  will.  There  is 
in  it,  in  some  sense,  an  internal  voice  of  God  to  the  soul, 
saying,  "Go  thou  and  preach  the  kingdom  of  God  I  " 

This  awakened  desire  of  the  soul  should  take  the  form  of 
a  ruling  motive,  which  seeks  to  bend  all  things  to  the  accoin- 

»  October,  1864. 


396  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

plishment  of  its  end.  Of  course  there  may  not  be  the  same 
strength  of  zeal  and  depth  of  spiritual  feeling  in  all  men. 
Some  temperaments  are  moved  by  the  sense  of  duty  more 
than  by  the  atTections  of  the  heart.  Faith  diflers,  too,  in  its 
standards  of  consecration.  All  true  and  good  ministers  of 
the  gospel  could  not  perhaps  say  with  the  apostle,  "  Neces- 
sity is  laid  upon  me;  yea,  ime  is  me  if  I  preach  not  the 
gospel.^''  It  would  probably  be  asking  too  much  to  bring 
the  decision  of  this  question,  in  ordinary  cases,  to  the  issue 
of  the  apostle's  view  of  the  work  of  the  ministry  as  here 
expressed ;  yet  should  not  something  of  the  feeling  ex- 
pressed in  those  words  truly  enter  into  the  decision  of  every 
genuine  minister  of  the  gospel  in  taking  up  and  carrying  on 
this  work?  Should  he  not  in  some  measure  be  conscious 
of  the  fact  that  he  has  really  been  sent  to  preach  the  gospel, 
and  ''to  serve  God  with  his  spirit  in  the  gospel  of  his 
Son"?  We  ourselves,  indeed,  may  have  erred  —  that  is 
possible  ;  we  may  have  erred  in  our  calling,  and  conceived 
ourselves  to  be  what  we  are  not ;  but  that  does  not  alter  the 
question,  nor  change  the  conditions  of  a  true  call.  In 
Bishop  Burnet's  language,  "there  is  something  in  the  heart 
of  the  true  minister  which  convinces  him  that  he  is  inwardly 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost ; "  that  he  is  not  acting  simply 
upon  a  human  resolution,  or  ordinary  outward  idea  of 
duty. 

Our  Lord  had  this  overpowering  desire,  or  ruling  motive, 
in  his  ministry.  He  sought  not  self-glory,  but  devoted 
himself,  soul  and  body,  to  the  work  specially  committed  to 
him.  It  w\as  his  meat  and  drink  to  do  this  work ;  and 
the  zeal  of  the  Lord's  house  consumed  him.  A  fother 
of  the  church  says,  "He  who  is  called  to  instruct  souls  is 
called  of  God,  and  not  by  his  own  ambition ;  and  Avhat  is 
this  call  but  an  inward  incentive  of  love,  soliciting  us  to  be 
zealous  for  the  salvation  of  our  brethren?  So  often  as  he 
who  is  engaged  in  preaching  the  word  shall  feel  his  inward 
man  to  be  excited  with  divine  affections,  so  often  let  him 


§  30.       THE    CALL   TO    THE    MINISTRY. 


597 


assure  himself  that  God  is  there,  and  that  he  is  invited  bj. 
him  to  seek  the  good  of  souls." 

The  essence,  then,  of  this  ruling  desire  of  which  we  have 
spoken,  is,  we  think,  such  a  strength  of  love  for  God  and 
man,  given  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  a  man  is  willing  to 
devote  his  life  freely  to  ivorking  for  the  good  of  souls. 

Bishop  Burnet  says,  in  regard  to  the  sincerity  of  this 
inward  principle,  "Ask  yourselves  often,  could  you  follow 
that  course  of  life  if  there  were  no  settled  establishment 
belonging  to  it,  and  if  you  were  to  preach  under  the  cross, 
and  in  danger  of  persecution  ?  For  till  you  arrive  at  that, 
you  are  still  carnal,  and  come  to  the  priesthood  for  a  piece 
of  bread." 

Yet   we  would  not  wish  to  describe  the  nature  of  this 
inward  call  in  such  a  way  as  to  discourage  any  true  candi- 
date for  the  ministry,  for  it  is  a  serious  matter  to  make  an 
error  here,  one  way  or  the  other;    and  often  men,  young 
men,  are  not  in  the  habit  of  analyzing  their  motives  care- 
fully.    We  wish  only  to  bring  out  the  simple  truth  that 
there  is  a  divine  call  to  the  ministry,  and  that  this  is  not 
a  matter  simply  of  human  reason  or  suggestion,  but  that 
that  true  call  consists  chiefly  in  the  purpose  or  desire  to 
enter  into  this  work  above  all  others,   as  the  work  which 
God  has  appointed  one  to  do.     This  pure  desire  or  motive 
separates  itself,   (1.)    From  merely  prudential  motives.    To 
enter  the  ministry  simply  in  order  to  gain  a  living  —  as  a 
''brod-studi urn''— from  that  the  Christian  conscience  shrinks 
with  disgust.     It  shrinks  also  from  the  motive,  that  in  the 
ministry  one  may  gain  a  smooth  and  easy  pathway  through 
life.     One  of  the  main  reasons  of  the  vitality  of  the  Amer- 
ican   church    above    that  of  European  churches  (this  was 
Neander's   opinion)  lies  in  the  fact,   that  Americans,  as  a 
general    rule,    enter   the  ministry  from  spiritual,  and  not 
material,  motives  ;  not  looking  upon  the  ministry  as  a  purely 
official  position.     We  do  not  say  that  a  candidate  for  the 
ministry  can  keep  out  of  his  mind  all  prudential  considera- 
34 


398  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

tions,  or  should  do  so ;  but  if  these  are  uppermost,  or  come 
most  frequently  to  his  mind,  let  him,  ere  it  be  too  late,  ^ive 
up  a  profession  which  demands  a  true  man,  and  not  a  hire- 
ling. (2.)  From  motives  of  selWsh  ambition.  This  we  need 
not  dwell. upon  ;"  for  in  deciding  the  question  of  the  minis- 
try, motives  of  personal  ambition  are  to  be  put  aside  as 
suggestions  of  evil.  (3.)  From  motives  of  respect  to 
the  opinions  of  parents  or  friends.  The  wishes  of  sin- 
cere friends  should  have  their  proper  weight,  but  a 
man  must  decide  such  a  question  for  himself  foro  con- 
scienticB.  It  is  a  matter  between  him  and  God  :  if  God 
calls,  he  must  obey ;  and  if  God  does  not  call,  he  must 
not  go.  A  parent's  rash  vow  cannot  bind  the  conscience 
of  the  child  in  this  matter ;  the  child  should  act  without 
constraint. 

But  this  strong  and  controlling  motive  or  desire  to  enter 
the  ministry  —  this  supreme  love  to  God  and  man  —  is 
not  an  unreasoning  or  impracticable  motive.  It  is  not  a 
passionate  enthusiasm.  It  springs  from  principle,  and 
should  be  accompanied  by  those  internal  and  external  proofs 
of  the  intent  of  Providence  which  render  it  not  only 
possible  to  be  carried  out,  but  which  point  in  some  measure 
directly  to  the  necessity  of  its  being  carried  out.  This 
brings  us  to  the  consideration  of 

3.   Signs  of  a  divine  call. 

When  this  ruling  desire  or  purpose  to  serve  God  in  the 
work  of  the  ministry  is  accompanied  by  other  proofs,  or 
by  outward  providential  circumstances'  favoring  it,  the 
fact  of  the  calling  would  •  seem  to  be  in  some  degree  con- 
firmed ;  and  not  to  regard  these  at  all,  but  simply  to  regard 
our  own  impulse  or  desire,  may  lead  to  a  rash  rather  than 
wise  decision  of  this  momentous  question. 

(a.)  A  drawing  of  the  sympathies,  freely  thereto. 

One  finds  that  his  inclination,  as  well  as  his  positive  judg- 


§  30.       THE    CALL    TO    THE   MINISTRY.  399 

nient  on  the  score  of  duty,  leads  toward  the  ministry. 
Something  may  happen  to  prove  to  one  that  his  sympathies 
with  Christ  in  his  work  are  all-powerful ;  something  may 
show  him  that  his  heart  is  there,  and  not  in  worldly  busi- 
ness. The  temptation  of  worldly  success  in  some  form 
may  have  been  already  offered  him,  and  he  has  clearly  per- 
ceived its  powerlessness  over  his  heart :  this  is  a  great 
help  and  confirmation  in  his  choice.  But  there  are  other 
less  vague  and  more  determinable  signs. 

(b.)  General  Jitness,  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral,  for 
the  work.  God  would  hardly  call  a  man  to  the  ministry  who 
was  not  in  any  respect  fitted  for  it.  Accompanying  the 
desire,  or  ruling  motive,  there  should  be  a  consciousness, 
however  humble,  of  some  degree  of  fitness  for  the  work,  — 
that  there  is  at  least  no  decided  disqualification,  e.g.,  no 
decided  physical  disability.  It  is  a  man's  work,  and  requires 
an  ordinary  degree  of  physical  health.  "  /  call  upon  you, 
young  men,  because  you  are  strong  "  If  a  man's  lungs  are 
too  weak  to  permit  him  to  sustain  the  labor  of  preaching, 
God  counsels  him  by  this  not  to  attempt  it.  A  young  man 
may  indeed  say,  "I  should  probably  live  longer  in  some 
other  occupation,  but  I  can  do  more  good  in  the  ministry 
in  a  shorter  time."  This,  we  think,  is  false  reasoning. 
Life  may  never  be  preferred  to  duty ;  but  no  true  servant 
of  God  is  to  presume  that  he  can  do  more  good  in  one 
field  in  a  short  time  than  he  can  in  another  in  a  long, 
or  longer  time.  A  decided  impediment  in  his  speech, 
or  anything  which  renders  one  incapable  of  attend- 
ing to  some  important  position  of  the  varied  duties  of 
the  ministry,  would  be  a  sufficient  bar  to  the  ministry  — 
for  other  doors  of  service  are  still  left  open.  In  like  man- 
ner there  should  be  no  decided  intellectual  unfitness  for  the 
work.  Some  men  are  mentally  disqualified  for  the  ministry, 
who  may  yet  be  men  of  decided  ability.  There  is  no 
want,  but  rather  there  is  inaptness  of  mind.  They  may  be 
persons  of  a  too  reticent,  subjective,  and  philosophic  cast  of 


400  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

mind,  who  can  be  only  philosophers  and  scholars;  who  are 
not  too  intellectual,  but  too  exclusively  intellectual,  men; 
who  are  supremely  interested  in  the  intellectual  side  of 
truth.  On  the  other  hand,  they  may  be  persons  of  too 
intensely  practical  minds,  far  better  adapted  for  lawyers, 
business  men,  civil  engineers,  or  scientific  men.  Such 
minds  can  doubtless  be  more  useful  out  of  the  ministry 
than  in  it.  Such  men  by  their  practical  abilities,  and  their 
power  of  acquiring  wealth,  may  become  the  almoners  and 
benefactors  of  the  church,  the  stewards  of  her  treasures, 
creating  the  means  and  giving  the  impulse,  in  all  great 
measures  of  benevolence.  We  would  not  say  that  great  or 
uncommon  talents  are  indispensable  for  the  ministry ;  on 
the  contrary,  ordinary  and  moderate  abilities,  if  thoroughly 
consecrated  to  the  work,  have  accomplished  wonderful  things 
in  this  field ;  but  we  do  contend  that  there  should  be  some 
degree  of  mental  adaptation  for  the  office  —  some  aptitude 
for  preaching,  for  public  address,  and  for  other  peculiar 
offices  of  the  profession. 

So,  too,  there  should  be  no  peculiar  unfitness  in  point  of 
natural  disposition  and  moral  qualifications.  Some  men 
have  too  much  of  the  wild  olive  tree,  or  wild  and  sour  crab- 
apple  tree,  in  their  natural  temper,  to  grow  inside  of 
the  Lord's  garden,  to  say  nothing  of  being  planted  in  the 
ministry,  where  cheerfulness,  hopefulness,  and  kindness  of 
disposition  are  so  important.  When  the  heart's  oil  is 
dried  up,  one  had  better  do  anything  than  jangle  and  creak 
through  the  ministry  of  divine  love  all  his  life.  Some  men 
also  are  constitutionally  too  weak  in  will  to  push  on  this 
great  and  arduous  work.  Such  inherited  or  inherent  in- 
firmities, and  such  marked  faults  of  spirit,  disqualify  men  to 
lead  and  guide  others.  It  may  happen  also  that  the 
injurious  effects  of  a  previous  life  of  sin  shall  render  a 
good  man  better  fitted  for  some  other  position  than  that  of 
the  ministry ;  to  be  "  of  good  reputation  with  those  who 
are  without "  is  given  by  the  apostle  as  a  ministerial  requi- 


§   30.       THE   CALL    TO    THE    MINISTRY.  401 

site.  Power  is  taken  into  the  ministry  from  a  previously 
moral  life,  even  from  the  days  of  childhood.  Savonarola 
was  wont  to  say,  that  "he  who  grew  up  from  a  child  pure 
and  irreproachable,  when  he  became  a  man  would  be  able  to 
hold  converse  with  angels."  When  the  moral  reputation 
of  a  man  has  been  signally  and  publicly  damaged,  for  him 
to  take  a  less  prominent  post  than  the  ministry  is  the 
dictate  of  a  right  sense  and  conscience.  (Tit.  1:7.)  There 
may  be,  and  have  been,  however,  marked  exceptions  to  this. 
Added  to  these  physical  and  moral  disqualifications,  there 
may  be  others  of  a  more  Spiintual  nature,  such  as  doubts  in 
religious  things,  which  perhaps  amount  to  the  positive 
obscuration  of  faith.  Every  thinking  mind  will  at  some 
time  be  troubled  with  doubts,  and  they  will  tenaciously  cling 
to  some  persons  to  the  end  of  life  ;  for  Bishop  Colenso  is  not 
the  first  man  who  has  found  difficulties  in  the  Scriptures^ 
nor  are  Blanco  White  and  Sterling  the  only  minds  that  have 
lost  their  way  in  the  realms  of  spirit.  Men  who  are  among 
the  humblest  and  best  Christians  frequently  doubt  their  own 
faith  and  salvation.  Ministers  sometimes  increase  their 
theological  doubts  by  their  increase  of  scientific  knowledge 
and  their  wider  range  of  thought  and  investigation.  The 
head  is  often  in  mists,  while  the  heart  is  still  moving  on 
in  the  right  direction. 

Now,  there  may  be  troubles  and  doubts  in  the  mind  of  a 
minister  respecting  the  things  of  faith,  which  come  and  go 
like  clouds  over  a  sky,  and  they  may  not  unfit  him  for  his 
work,  for  the  sun  of  faith  still  shines  steadily  ;  but  there  may 
be  such  an  eclijise  of  faith  as  to  disqualify  a  man  to  preach 
the  truth  ;  or,  worse  than  that,  there  may  be  a  decided  want 
of  positive  faith,  —  not  a  hiding,  but  an  absence,  of  faith. 
And,  if  a  man,  through  some  idiosyncrasy,  or  sincere 
doubt,  or  real  disbelief,  cannot  embrace  with  such  clearness 
the  fundamental  truths  of  Christianity  as  to  be  able  to  teach 
others  with  personal  conviction  of  the  same,  and  some  degree 
of  positive  earnestness,  though  God  may  love  him  and  lead 
34* 


402  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

him  along  through  and  by  his  very  doubts  to  higher  points 
of  faith,  he  had  better  not  think  of  the  ministry,  until,  at 
least,  he  obtains  those  clearer  views ;  for  in  Christianity 
there  is  no  esoteric  and  exoteric  faith,  or  hidden  truth  for 
one  class  of  minds,  which  others  may  not  share  if  they  will 
seek  for  it. 

(c.)  Providential  events  and  cii^cumstances  which  seem 
more  or  less  distinctly  to  point  to  the  ministry. 

The  mind  of  the  Spirit  is  to  be  interpreted  by  outward 
providences  as  well  as  by  inward  impulses;  and  if  the  hairs 
of  our  head  are  numbered,  and  not  a  sparrow  falls  to  the 
ground  without  our  Father,  God  guides  the  outward  as  well  as 
the  inward  life  of  a  man,  and  adapts  the  one  to  the  other  ;  we 
should  therefore  endeavor  to  interpret  the  Spirit  of  God  by 
the  providence  of  God.  These  providential  guidings  and 
leadings  are  of  too  varied  and  personal  a  nature  to  be 
definitely  specified.  Doors  of  opportunity  unexpectedly 
opened  for  acquiring  an  education ;  marked  events  or 
bereavements  at  decisive  junctures  of  life,  which  lead  the 
soul  to  profound  views  of  duty ;  circumstances  of  pecu- 
liar grace  in  one's  own  history ;  unmistakable  adaptations 
to  the  work  shown  in  collateral  and  subordinate  fields,  such 
as  mission  work  and  Sunday  school  teaching ;  deliverances 
from  outward  and  inward  perils  ;  the  hedging  up  of  one's 
way,  so  that  a  voice  seems  to  be  heard,  sajdng,  "  This  is  the 
way  :  walk  therein ; "  such  pointing  and  controlling  com- 
binations of  circumstances  outside  of  one's  own  immediate 
control,  and  coming  from  a  higher  source,  —  these  certainly 
should  have  weight.  And  even  the  negative  fact  that  there 
are  no  circumstances  that  form  an  insuperable  bar  to  one's 
becomino;  a  minister  should,  with  other  thinofs,  be  inter- 
preted  favorably.  Ministers  sometimes  speak  of  events  in 
their  personal  history  which  formed  the  turning-points  of 
their  resolution  to  become  pastors.  The  case  of  Ambrose, 
Bishop  of  Milan,  born  A.  D.  340,  is  an  illustrious  example. 
The  peculiar  circumstances  which  surrounded  and  drew  him, 


§  30.       THE    CALL   TO    THE    MINISTRY.  4Q3 

'  as  with  a  net,  into  the  ministry,  are  striking.  He  was  descend- 
ed from  a  pious  ancestry.  In  an  empire  which  was  yet  but 
partially  Christianized,  his  family  had  embraced  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  a  century  or  more  before.  One  of  his  ancestors 
had  suffered  martyrdom  for  the  faith  during  the  persecution 
of  Diocletian  ;  he  had  martyr's  blood  in  his  veins.  His  sis- 
ter, in  whose  charge  he  was  left,  was  renowned  for  her  piety. 
His  father,  being  a  man  of  the  highest  civil  dignity,  one  of 
the  three  prefects  of  the  Roman  empire,  intended  him  to 
occupy  a  civil  post.  Probably  another  course  of  life  was 
no  more  thought  of  for  him,  than  it  would  have  been  for  the 
son  of  the  emperor.  He  was  appointed  praetor  of  the  prov- 
inces of  Liguria  and  JSmilia,  of  which  Milan  was  the  capital. 
Just  before  he  came  to  his  post, — which  is  another  provi- 
dential circumstance,  —  Auxentius,  the  Arian  bishop  of 
Milan,  died,  and  on  account  of  the  excited  state  of  religious 
controversy  and  party  strife  in  the  diocese,  there  could  be 
no  election.  At  one  of  the  meetings,  the  popular  feeling 
was  so  violent,  that  there  was  likelihood  of  a  riot  in  the 
church  itself.  Ambrose,  as  the  civil  governor,  came  in  to 
restore  order.  A  child's  voice  was  heard,  crying  out,  "Am- 
brose, bishop  !  "  The  people,  with  that  instinct  which  some- 
times makes  the  vox  populi  the  vox  Dei,  took  up  the  cry, 
and  Ambrose  was  immediately  chosen  bishop  of  Milan.  He 
strove  to  evade  the  call  by  every  means  possible ;  but  the 
people,  who  already  knew  him  better  than  he  knew  himself, 
and  had  seen  in  him  great  qualities,  insisted  upon  his  accept- 
ance. The  pressure  of  these  events  at  last  overcame  his  scru- 
ples ;  and,  as  the  historian  Bohringer  says,  he  always  regarded 
his  call,  in  his  inmost  heart,  as  one  from  God.  The  emi- 
nent qualifications -of  the  man  for  the  place  soon  were  mani- 
fest. The  true  minister  of  Christ  was  in  him.  He  gave 
away  his  immense  estate  for  benevolent  purposes,  and  devot- 
ed himself  to  his  work  with  apostolic  zeal  and  singleness 
of  object.  He  was  an  eloquent  and  unwearied  preacher  of 
the  word  ;  he  numbered  Augustine  among  his  converts.    He 


404  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

checked  the  Arian  heresy,  opposed  the  last  desperate  as- 
saults of  chissic  paganism,  and  resisted  the  whole  force  of 
the  imperial  power  in  vindication  of  the  purity  of  Christian 
communion. 

There  may  be  sometimes  too  much  made  of  what  are  called 
providential  circumstances,  so  much  so  as  to  lead  one  into 
superstition.  Every  man  loves  to  think  that  there  is  some- 
thing peculiar  in  his  own  history,  and  that  in  some  way  he  is 
a  fovorite  of  God  ;  but,  nevertheless,  the  directing  finger  of 
God  in  the  events  of  one's  own  personal  history  is  to  be 
reverently  studied  and  heeded,  for  of  the  good  man,  at  least, 
God  says,  '^^  I  will  guide  him  by  7nine  eye." 

(cZ.)  A  call  to  preach  from  the  church.  This  is  also 
indirectly  a  call  of  God,  who  rules  the  affairs  of  his 
church,  and  especially  in  so  important  a  matter  as  the 
appointment  of  a  spiritual  guide  of  his  people.  There  is 
order  in  God's  house,  and  he  has  so  ordered  that  a  minister 
derives  his  authority  and  commisiou  to  preach  from  himself 
throuijh  his  church.  The  external  call  which  comes  from  the 
church  repeats,  or  rather  gives  expression  to,  the  internal  call 
of  God.  We  have  great  faith  in  the  true  call  of  the  church. 
Sometimes,  no  doubt,  it  is  not  a  true  call,  when  made  rash- 
ly, or  passionately,  or  selfishly  ;  but  when  it  has  been  made 
with  prayer  and  humble  dependence  on  God's  will  and  guid- 
ing spirit,  it  is  generally  right.  The  history  of  the  church 
proves  this.  True  ministers  are  generally  placed  in  posi- 
tions best  fitted  for  them,  not  only  for  their  own  growth, 
but  for  the  highest  good  of  others.  God  shapes  good  men 
for  their  places,  and  their  places  for  them,  and  sometimes 
out  of  the  most  unpromising  materials  he  brings  the  most 
glorious  results. 

We  add  a  single  word  here  upon  the  Congregational  idea 
of  a  church  call.  Isaac  Chauucey  says,  that  "a  mediate 
call  is  that  which  Christ  makes  by  the  instrumentality  of  a 
church.  The  consummation  of  the  call  is  made  by  the  free 
acceptance  of  the  person  called."     (Cong.  Die,  p.   47.) 


§  30.      THE   CALL   TO   THE   MINISTRY.  405 

Ov\'en  sums  up  the  whole  matter  of  a  call  iu  these  com- 
prehensive words :  "  Minister's  calling  arises  from  Christ's 
iustitutiou  of  the  office,  from  God's  providential  designa- 
tion of  the  person,  and  from  the  church's  call,  election,  or 
appointment,  and  his  acceptation." 

The  writer  in  the  Congregational  Quarterly  (October  1864) , 
to  whom  we  have  before  referred,  has  some  well-considered, 
and  we  think,  in  the  main,  just  views  upon  the  church's  call 
to  the  ministry,  or,  at  least,  the  true  Congregational  view  of  it. 
He  holds  that  one  may  be  a  preacher  of  the  gospel,  and  yet 
not  be  a  true  minister,  or  pastor ;  and  old  Congregational 
authorities  unite  in  saying,  that  "good  men  may  preach  the 
gospel  without  pastoral  power."  This  writer  lays  down  the 
principle  that,  to  become  a  minister,  one  must  be  regularly 
called,  approved,  ordained,  and  settled,  by  the  church,  over 
some  particular  pastorai  field.  Merely  to  enter  the  work  as 
a  preacher,  going  from  place  to  place,  and  not  remaining  to 
nourish  the  life  that  may  have  been  awakened ;  or  merely 
to  give  himself  to  the  work  on  Sunday,  and  to  spend  the 
rest  of  the  week  in  secular  business ;  being  engaged  iu 
preaching  as  a  by-work,  and  not  as  a  life-work,  or  regular 
calling, —  such  a  one  is  not  entitled  to  the  name  and  office  of 
minister.^  He  may  be  a  good  man,  a  good  preacher,  a 
faithful  laborer  for  Christ ;  but  he  is  not,  according  to 
Congregational  views,  a  regular  minister  of  the  gospel. 
"When  one  has  an  impression,  from  the  emotions  of  his 
soul,  and  the  circumstances  of  his  life,  that  God  has  called 
him  to  the  work  of  the  ministry ;  when  his  Christian 
brethren,  after  a  sufficient  and  prayerful  examination,  have 
felt  that  he  has  all  the  needed  natural,  literary,  theologi- 
cal, and  spiritual  qualifications  for  that  work;  when  he 
has  been  freely  chosen  hy  a  particular  church  to  perform 
that  work  among  them,  or  to  go  to  the  regions  beyond,  and 

'  We  suppose  no  reference  is  here  made  to  Methodist  ministers  who  gain 
their  livelihood  by  secular  occupations,  and  who  are  efficient  and  noble  work- 
ers for  Christ. 


406  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

labor  anion"'  the  destitute ;  when  he  has  received  the  im- 
position of  hands  from  those  who  have  the  proper  authority 
to  perform  that  act,  —  then  it  may  be  considered  that  he  has 
received  a  proper,  regular,  and  sufficient  induction  into  the 
Christian  ministry." 

The  more  the  number  of  good  and  faithful  ministers  of 
the  gospel  is  increased,  the  better;  but  the  standard  of  in- 
duction into  the  ministry  should  not  be  lowered.  There  is 
a  tendency  to  do  this,  and  there  is  an  indecent  haste  often 
to  enter  the  ministry,  and  an  unpardonable  irregularity  in 
the  mode  of  entering  it.  This  all  tends  to  degrade  the 
sacredness,  and  lessen  the  usefulness,  of  the  pastoral  office. 

§  31.      Ordination. 

Ordination  may  be  defined  to  be  a  solemn  induction  into 
the  pastoral  office  of  one  who  is  regularly  called  and  chosen 
by  a  church  to  he  its  pastor. 

It  is  a  scriptural  ceremony,  having  a  sacred  impressive- 
ness  and  significance,  like  a  marriage  ceremony,  and  not  to 
be  frequently  repeated,  but  done  once  for  all ;  for  it  has  ref- 
erence to  a  permanent  office  and  work,  to  which  the  subject 
has  devoted  his  life. 

The  ceremonial  act  itself  of  ordination,  or  of  "the  laying 
on  of  hands,"  is  one  that  is  symbolical  of  the  communication 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  given  for  a  particular  work,  in  answer 
to  prayer,  as  in  Acts  6  :  6  and  14 :  23,  and  in  like  manner, 
though  not  here  applied  to  the  presbyteral  or  ministerial 
office,  in  Acts  19  :  6. 

The  symbol  is  derived  from  the  Old  Testament,  as  in 
Numbers  27  :  18,  20,  Dent.  34  :  9,  and  Gen.  48  :  14,  where 
it  probably  signified  a  kind  of  benediction,  or  the  drawing 
down  of  God's  blessing  on  the  person  and  his  work. 

Neander  says,  "The  consecration  to  offices  was  conduct- 
ed in  the  following  manner :  After  those  persons  to  whom 
the  performance  belonged  had  laid  their  hands  on  the  head  of 


§  31.       ORDINATION.  407 

the  caudiclate  (a  symbolic  action  borrowed  from  the  Hebrew 
nn'itop) ,  they  besought  the  Lord  that  he  would  grant  what  this 
symbol  denoted  —  the  impartation  of  the  gifts  of  his  Spirit 
for  carrying  on  the  oiEce  thus  undertaken  in  his  name.  If, 
as  it  was  presumed,  the  whole  ceremony  corresponded  to 
its  intent,  and  the  requisite  disposition  existed  in  those  for 
whom  it  was  performed,  there  was  reason  for  considering 
the  communication  of  the  spiritual  gifts  necessary  for  the 
office,  as  connected  with  the  consecration  performed  in  the 
name  of  Christ.  And  since  Paul,  from  this  point  of  view, 
designated  the  Avhole  of  the  solemn  proceeding  (without 
separating  it  into  its  various  elements)  by  that  which  Avas 
its  external  symbol  (as,  in  scriptural  phraseology,  a  single 
act  of  a  transaction  consisting  of  several  parts,  and  some- 
times that  which  was  most  striking  to  the  senses,  is  often 
mentioned  for  the  whole),  he  required  of  Timothy  that  ho 
should  seek  to  revive  afresh  the  spiritual  gifts  that  he  had 
received  by  the  laying  on  of  hands  "^ 

The  Congregational  idea  of  ordination  has  its  essence,  not 
in  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  ministers  or  bishops,  and, 
through  this,  of  imparting  to  the  subject  an  apostolic  power 
or  supernatural  influence  ;  but  in  the  actual  choice  or  appoint- 
ment, by  the  people,  of  the  minister  to  his  office,  Avhile  the 
ordination  service  is  the  formal  induction  into  office. 

In  the  Cambridge  Platform  (p.  QQ),  it  is  said,  "  This  ordi- 
nation we  account  as  nothing  else  but  the  solemn  putting  a 
man  into  his  place  and  office  in  the  church,  to  which  he  had 
a  right  before  by  his  election." 

Hooker,  in  the  preface  to  his  Survey,  says,  "  Ordination 
is  installing  of  an  officer  into  the  office  to  which  he  was  pre- 
viously called." 

Cambridge  Platform,  c.  9,  sec.  2  :  "  The  essence  and  sub- 
stance of  the  outward  call  of  an  ordinary  officer  doth  not 

'  "  Planting  and  Training,"  cap.  v.,  p.  97. 


408  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

consist  in  his  ordination,  but  in  his  voUmtary  and  free  elec- 
tion by  the  church,  and  his  accepting  of  that  relation.  Or- 
dination doth  not  constitute  an  officer,  nor  give  hira  the 
essentials  of  his  office.  The  apostles  were  elders  -without 
imposition  of  the  hands  of  men.  Paul  and  Barnabas  were 
officers  before  that  imposition  of  hands." 

The  old  Puritan  authorities  deny,  also,  that  even  a  coun- 
cil is  necessary  for  the  act  of  ordination.  Richard  Mather 
and  John  Cotton  say,  that  though  it  was  the  practice  to  call 
in  other  churches,  yet  that  the  power  of  ordination  was  in 
the  church  alone. 

Ordination,  therefore,  in  the  Congregational  view  of  it, 
is  not  an  opus  operatum,  or  somethnig  conferring  mysteri- 
ous power  by  the  actual  imposition  of  hands ;  but  it  is, 
nevertheless,  considered  to  be  an  apostolical  and  not  unim- 
portant rite.  It  may  not  be  absolutely  essential,  but  it  is 
necessary  to  good  order  in  the  church  and  in  the  ministry ; 
and  its  modern  neglect  is  a  cause  of  great  evil,  lessening 
the  dignity,  efficiency,  and  permanency  of  the  ministry. 
Ordination  is  usually  performed  by  means  of  an  ecclesias- 
tical council;  but,  as  has  been  already  stated,  it  would  be 
valid  if  done  by  the.  church  without  a  council,  though  it 
would  not  be  reo^ular.  True  Congregationalism  is  not  bare 
independency,  and  each  church,  though  "  an  original  power 
may  inhere  in  it  to  ordain  a  minister  over  itself,"  yet  has 
no  right  to  ordain  an  entirely  unfit  or  unworthy  man,  one 
totally  opposed  to  the  scriptural  idea  of  the  ministry,  or  to 
the  common  consensus  in  regard  to  the  office  among  the 
churches.  Christ  is  higher  than  the  church,  and  the  minis- 
ter, though  placed  in  office  by  the  church,  is  primarily  called 
and  delegated  by  Christ,  and  derives  his  authority  from  him. 
He  is  first  called  of  God,  and  then  he  is  called  of  the  church. 
The  church  cannot  make  a  minister  of  the  gospel,  Christ 
alone  can  do  it. 

There  are  many  vexed  questions  in  regard  to  the  true 
nature  of  ordination,  its  temporary  or  indelible  character, 


§  31.       ORDINATION.  409 

its  relations  to  the  standing  of  the  ministry  outside  of  the 
local  pastorate,  the  distinction  between  ordination  and  instal- 
lation, and  the  real  nieasiire  of  power  which  ordination  con- 
fers ;  which  questions  we  are  not  called  upon  to  discuss  ; 
but,  while  we  respect  the  views  of  experienced  men  who 
differ  from  us,  we  are  inclined  to  the  opinion,  that  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  age  and  the  time,  guided  by  a  Christian 
instinct,  must,  to  some  extent,  rule  in  this  matter  (which  is 
of  great,  though  not  of  vital,  importance),  and  that  to 
press  an  ancient  Congregational  usage  —  good  in  its 
time — rigidly  is  not  wise;  thus,  to  require,  in  every 
instance,  that  the  ordination  should  be  in  connection  with 
a  local  church  as  a  definite  field  of  settlement,  cannot  be 
carried  out  Avith  logical  strictness  ;  nor  can  it  be  held  that  a 
connection  with  a  local  church  is  the  absolute  prerequisite 
of  good  ministerial  standing. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  this  ancient  ceremony  of 
ordination,  which  has  in  itself  often  so  much  of  spiritual 
impressiveness  and  quickening,  which  is  so  beautiful  and 
solemn,  should  seem  to  be  losing  its  power  and  place  in  the 
church,  and  that  a  kind  of  commercial  and  e very-day  idea 
is  attached  to  the  relation  of  a  minister  to  his  people.  In 
primitive  New  England  country  communities  it  still,  happi- 
ly, retains  its  sacred  import  and  hallowed  associations.  We 
quote  words  that  express  a  true  sentiment,  though  applied 
to  a  different  land  and  people  :  "I  agree  with  you  certainly, 
that  every  sacred  solemnity  has  in  it  something  impressive, 
provided  it  be  well  performed  and  reverently  attended  to; 
but  yet,  if  you  Avould  see  a  real  ordination,  go  to  some 
out-of-the-way  village  that  is  with  a  hearty  interest  receiv- 
ing a  well-intentioned  young  man,  who,  on  his  side,  is  con- 
secrating to  it  his  first  strength,  with  tears  and  prayers  : 
that  is  a  virgin  marriao^e  !  "  i 

John  Wesley  denied  the  necessity,  but  not  the  expediency, 

'  Manse  of  Mastland. 

35 


410  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

of  ordination  ;  and  he  himself  at  Bristol,  England,  ordained 
a  minister  to  the  new  American  Methodist  churches. 
He  also  established  certain  tests  to  be  applied  to  lay 
preacher,  and  many  of  these  early  Methodist  lay  preachers 
became  afterward  regularly  ordained  ministers.  In  like 
manner,  Congregationalists  hold  that  ordinati(m,  while  it  is 
not  necessary  to  constitute  a  minister  of  the  gospel,  is, 
nevertheless,  expedient  and  orderly,  and  its  omission,  ex- 
cept iiT  cases  of  real  necessity,  would  go  to  destroy  the 
feeling  of  responsibility  in  church  and  pastor,  and  would  be 
injurious  to  the  church's  permanent  prosperity. 

In  regard  to  lay-preaching,  it  is  undoubtedly  true,  as 
has  been  stated,  that  lay-preaching  was  practised  exten- 
sively in  the  earliest  age  of  the  church.  In  the  apostolic 
church  itself,  lay-preaching,  or  exhortation,  was  practised 
under  the  supervision  and  regulation  of  the  presbyter  of 
the  church ;  and  at  the  present  day  it  is  not  only  lawful, 
but  greatly  demanded,  where  there  are  fit  men  to  do  it,  and 
where  the  laborers  are  few.  A  spiritual  earnestness,  a 
freshness,  and  a  practical  application  to  the  wants  of  the 
people,  are  often  found  in  lay-preaching,  which  do  not 
always  appear  in  the  routine  of  regular  preaching ;  but  this 
does  not  conflict  with  the  permanent  institution  and  work  of 
the  regular  ministry. 

§  32.      The  Trials  and  liewards  of  the  Pastor. 

It  is  impossible  that  one  who  has  not  yet  entered  upon 
the  work  of  a  pastor  should  know  (and  it  would  not  be  well 
for  him  to  know)  all  the  difliculties  that  attend  a  faithful 
pastorate  ;  but  it  is  right  that  he  should  have  beforehand  some 
general  idea  of  what  they  are  or  may  be;  else,  like  a  ship 
unfitted  for  rough  weather,  he  is  apt  to  be  discouraged  and 
thrown  back  at  the  outset,  by  the  first  storm  he  encounters. 

The  Scriptures  hang  out  premonitory  lights  here,  as  in 
2  Tim.  4:5;  2  Tim.  2  :  3,  John  15  :  20 ;  John  16  :  33. 


§  32.      TRIALS   AND   EEWAEDS   OF   PASTOR.  411 

Erasmus  wrote,  Evangelmm  Christi  sincere  prcedicanii- 
bus  nunquam  deest  crux."  Vinet  (Pas.  Theol.,  p.  54)  says 
of  the  pastor,  "His  life  is  a  life  of  consecration,  without 
which  it  has  no  meaning.  His  career  is  a  perpetual  sacri- 
fice, which  includes  all  that  belongs  to  him." 

The  young  pastor,  with  a  courageous  and  trustful  heart, 
feelins:  the  o^reatness  of  his  vocation,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  greatness  of  the  arm  he  leans  upon,  should  prepare 
himself  for  trials ;  and  what  great  and  worthy  work  does 
uot  have  its  trials  ? 

Let  us,  then,  endeavor  (and  we  shall  be  brief)  to  consider 
some  of  the  trials  and  temptations  which  are  almost  inevita- 
ble to  him  who  is  called  upon  "  to  endure  hardness  as  a 
good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ.''  Among  those  of  a  more 
outward  nature  might  be  mentioned, — 

(a.)  The  opposition  of  the  world  and  of  worldly  men 
to  the  truth.  The  outward  world  presses  in  every  way 
hardly  upon  a  devoted  teacher  of  the  inner,  spiritual 
truth. 

All  men  need  the  truth,  and  know  that  they  need  it;  yet 
when  the  truth  is  faithfully  brought  home  to  their  con- 
sciences, it  encounters  a  strong  opposition  ;  and  in  order  to 
meet  this  forcible  resistance  of  the  natural  heart,  the  minis- 
ter of  Christ  has  but  the  weapons  of  truth,  of  reason,  of 
God's  word.  He  is  soon  stripjDed  of  confidence  in  human 
strength  in  this  contest  with  the  powerful  forces  of  human 
will.  Constantly  to  manifest  the  truth  to  men's  hearts 
and  consciences,  whatever  their  opposition  may  be,  and 
whatever  the  varied  and  combined  antagonism  to  the 
truth  of  the  world  may  be,  requires  one  to  be  braced  up 
by  God's  own  hand  for  the  strife,  otherwise  he  will  soon 
faint. 

(6.)  The  liahility  to  he  misinterpreted  in  his  ivords,  actSy 
and  motives.  This  was  true  in  the  apostles'  time  in  regard 
to  Christian  teachers. 

The  pastor's    only  care    should   be   to  please  God;  for 


412  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

motives  cannot  be  perfectly  apprehended  by  men  ;  and  even 
his  ads  are  but  points  or  fragments  of  his  character, 
sometimes  the  best  and  sometimes  the  worst. 

A  minister  must  be  faithful  both  to  God  and  to  man, 
although  his  faithfulness  may  be  accounted  narrowness,  his 
zeal  illiberality,  and  his  acts  of  love  acts  of  selfishness. 

A  minister  should  cultivate  a  large-hearted  and  loving 
patience,  which  is  like  a  sea,  into  which  all  the  misappre- 
hensions, and  even  enmities,  of  men,  shall  immediately  sink 
and  be  forgotten.- 

(c.)  His  hest-diredecl  efforts  to  do  good  are  sometimes 
apparentlu  witJiout  fruit.  The  pain  and  disappointment 
endured  by  a  young  minister  connected  with  his  preaching 
alone  are  often  great.  He  may  make  a  laborious  preparation  ; 
he  may  pray  over  his  sermon  ;  he  may  have  the  strongest 
hopes  that  his  preaching  will  be  successful ;  but  though 
strong  and  assured  of  success  before  he  goes  into  the  pul- 
pit, his  sermon  falls  lifeless.  His  imagination  dwells  upon 
his  failure.  He  thinks  it  is  clearly  not  his  vocation  to 
preach ;  he  had  better  be  anywhere  than  in  the  pulpit. 
Brainerd  thus  says  of  himself  when  he  was  a  j^oung  preacher': 
"In  the  evening  of  the  Sabbath  I  could  hardly  look  any- 
body in  the  face,  because  of  the  imperfections  I  saw  in  my 
performances  in  the  day  past."  God  may  permit  a  young 
minister  to  toil  on  for  years  without  giving  him  the  outward 
evidences  of  success.  Other  churches  around  may  be 
visited  with  the  signs  of  renewed  life,  and  his  X)wn  may 
remain  like  a  barren  rock  in  a  meadow.  We  merely  point 
out  this  peculiar  kind  of  trial ;  and  it  is  a  great  one  to  some 
ministers,  although  others  are  led  through  pleasauter  and 
easier  paths. 

{d.)    The  death  of  the  impenitent  of  his  congregation. 

No  one  can  prejudge,  in  any  case,  the  eternal  judgment 
of  the  righteous  and  loving  God,  nor  should  we  desire  to 
do  so ;  but  it  may  be  that  some  will  be  taken  out  of  life 
without  showing  the  slightest  evidence  of  repentance  or  of 


§   32.    TRIALS    AND    REWARDS    OF   PASTOR.  413 

the  new  life  of  God  in  their  souls.  A  minister  cannot  but 
solemnly  ask  himself  in  such  cases,  "Would  it  have  been 
different    had    I    been  personally    more    faithful    to    such 

souls?" 

(e.)    The  apathy  and  lifelessness  of  the  church. 

One  may  be  called  to  a  church  Avhose  spiritual  life  has 
seemingly  almost  run  out ;  even  as  some  of  our  older  New 
England  churches  apparently  •  live  on  their  past  useful- 
ness, and  are  orthodoxly  dead.  Now,  if  a  young  minister 
attempts  to  bear  the  burden  of  a  dead  church,  it  will  cer- 
tainly crush  him  ;  and  until  he  learns  "  a  more  excellent 
way,"  he  is  in  danger  of  sinking  under  his  efforts  to  revive 
that  which  God  only  can  restore. 

(/.)   Extraordinary  trials  and  persecutions. 

The  normal  state  of  the  Christian  church  in  the  world  is  not 
a  peaceful  one,  and  the  times  of  trouble  and  persecution  may 
at  any  moment  arise.  It  may  be  for  the.  salvation  of  the 
church  that  persecutions  and  afflictions  shall  fall  upon  it,  as 
they  did  upon  the  Eeformed  churches  of  France  in  a  time 
of  supposed  tranquillity  and  peace.  With  the  exception  of 
the  recent  troublous  times  of  war,  which,  for  a  while  at  least, 
had  a  purifying  and  elevating  influence  upon  the  church,  we 
have  always  lived  in  such  peaceful  and  prosperous  days,  that 
we  think  this  to  be  the  regular  condition  of  things ;  but  a 
change  may  come  in  this  world  of  wickedness  as  suddenly 
as  a  storm  rises  ;  and  pastor  and  people  may  be  thrown  into 
great  trials,  perils,  and  tribulations.  It  is  for  the  pastor  to 
be  prepared  for  this,  and  he  must  not  be  a  hireling,  to  flee 
before  the  danger.  He  should  possess  something  of  the 
martyr-spirit  —  that  of  Eogers,  Hooper,  Latimer,  and  the 
old  French  Reformed  pastors,  who  were  ready  to  suffer  for 
and  with  their  flocks.  Vinet  says,  "  For  a  moment  God  may 
leave  us  in  an  easy  position,  but  the  ministry  implies  the 
most  dangerous  situations  ;  it  is  always  a  complete  sacrifice 
of  body  and  soul  to  the  service  of  the  church."  To  this 
list  of  outward  trials  might  be  added  the  more  comraon- 
35* 


414  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

place  but  often  severe  one  of  small  salaiy  and  pecuniary 
difficulties,  which  are  not  infrequently  the  occasion  of  untold 
anxiety  and  suffering  to  able  and  worthy  pastors.  If  the 
churches  do  not  cultivate  a  higher-toned  conscience  in  this 
respect,  a  much  lower  class  of  ministers,  intellectually  and 
morally,  will  be  brought  into  the  pulpits  of  the  land,  and  the 
cause  of  true  religion  will  'greatly  suffer. 

(^i^'.)  Insensibility  in  one's  own  heart.,  arising  from  famil- 
iarity with  the  most  solemn  truths. 

This  is  a  trial  of  a  more  inward  nature  than  any  we  have 
mentioned.  It  was  a  theory  of  Bishop  Butler,  that  passive 
impressions,  by  being  often  repeated,  tend  to  grow  weaker, 
while  active  impressions,  as  well  as  active  habits,  are 
strengthened  by  exercise ;  just  as  the  perception  of  distress 
or  misery  is  blunted  by  its  frequent  occurrence,  while 
practical  benevolence  is  increased  by  its  true  practice.  The 
passive  dwelling  or  theorizing  upon  virtue,  and  even  upon 
the  highest  spiritual  truth,  and  writing  fine  things  about  it, 
tend  in  the  same  manner  to  form  a  habit  of  insensibility  to 
moral  considerations,  while  the  actual  practice  of  virtue  and 
faith  strengthens  their  power.  It  is  needless  to  dwell  upon 
the  injurious  effects  of  this  moral  and  spiritual  insensibility, 
which,  if  suffered  to  go  on,  engenders  insincerity  and 
hypocrisy,  and  is  like  the  night-frost  to  all  tender  and 
true  religious  life.  Its  cure  lies  in  habits  of  practical  piety, 
and  of  cheerful,  vigorous  personal  activity  outside  of  the 
pulpit. 

(/^.)  A  temptation  to  exalt  the  intellectual  and  literary 
above  the  spiritual  portion  of  his  worh. 

A  young  minister  is  inclined  to  do  this,  on  the  principle 
that  the  better  reputation  he  has  as  a  preacher  and  thinker, 
the  more  good  he  can  accomplish.  But  where  a  minister 
feels  that  his  study  is  gaining  upon  him,  and  that  his  more 
practical  pastoral  duties  are  growing  distasteful,  he  should 
look  to  his  heart,  and  question  himself.  A  minister  does  not 
learn  at  first  to  be  satisfied  with  a  simple  sermon ;  but  he  is 


§  32.       TRIALS    AND   REWARDS   OF   PASTOR.  415 

haunted  by  the  demon  of  an  intellectual  reputation,  or  he 
is  interested  in  some  important  train  of  thought,  and  how 
can  he  break  off  to  visit  a  poor  family,  and  listen  to  their 
querulous  talk?  He  yields  to  the  temptation  and  stays  at 
home,  and  this  leads  to  the  habit  of  staying  at  home ;  but 
he  will  find,  at  length,  that  by  yielding  to  this  temptation, 
though  his  sermons  may  grow  more  brilliant,  they  will 
have  less  unction  and  power,  and  the  hearts  of  his  people 
will  be  gradually  slipping  from  him,  so  that  he  will  grasp 
a  barren  sceptre,  or  be  obliged  to  resign  it  altogether. 

(^.)  The  temptation  to  the  opposite  of  intellectual  toil  — 
to  ease  and  self-indulgence. 

A  man  of  ability  may  find  that  the  intellectual  calls  of  his 
profession  can  be  met  by  a  moderate  quantity  of  hard 
work,  and  he  may  imperceptibly  lower  his  standard ;  he 
fails  to  turn  his  whole  energies  into  the  current  of  his  work  ; 
he  becomes  a  tlabbler  in  literature ;  he  indulges  in  too 
much  periodical  and  light  reading ;  he  grows  to  be  a  social 
lounger ;  he  neglects  his  study,  or  frequents  his  easy-chair 
in  it;  he  loses  the  spirit  of  self-denial,  and  makes  his  work 
too  easy ;  and  yet,  intellectually  speaking,  he  may  be  a 
better  preacher  than  half  his  brethren,  and  thus  he  excuses 
himself.  How  fatal  is  this  temptation  in  a  profession  which, 
from  its  tranquil,  domestic,  and  social  character,  is  apt  to 
lead  to  indolence,  unless  a  manly  spirit  of  self-sacrifice 
is  kept  up  ! 

(y.)    The  temptation  to  feed  upon  applause. 

A  man  who  always  has  hearers  when  he  speaks,  and  who 
speaks  with  authority  from  his  position,  is  tempted  to  dis- 
play himself;  and  if  he  is  not  truly  great  as  Christ  makes 
a  man,  he  will  give  way  to  the  desire  of  winning  human 
admiration,  and  thus  of  preaching  himself,  and  not  Christ 
Jesus  the  Lord.  Praise  is  a  healthy  and  needful  stimulant 
to  generous  natures ;  but  if  its  love  is  cherished,  it  is 
fatal  to  ministerial  character  and  power ;  and  for  this  reason, 
perhaps  it  is  best  at  first  to  be  a  stanimerer,  and  to  call 


416  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

forth  no  praise,  until  the  mind  gets  strong  enough  and 
spiritually  noble  enough  to  bear  it;  for  God  may  some- 
times keep  back  young  ministers  from  great  outward  suc- 
cess, since  he  would  not  have  them  think  of  themselves,  but 
of  their  work.  He  knows  that  man  loves  power ;  as  an 
Arabian  proverb  says,  "There  is  a  bud  of  the  love  of 
power  in  every  man's  bosom  ;  it  waits  but  the  fit  opportuni- 
ty to  expand  ;  "  and  this  opportunity  comes  when  a  minis- 
ter is  firmly  seated  upon  his  ministerial  throne,  and  estab- 
lished there  as  it  were  by  divine  sanction ;  he  is  not 
contradicted,  at  least  to  his  knowledge;  he  sees  himself  to 
be  the  centre  of  interest,  of  opinion,  of  influence,  to  a  con- 
siderable number  of  minds,  and  it  is  but  human  to  grasp 
these  advantages  and  to  cultivate  them.  The  love  of  praise 
thus  grows  into  the  love  of  power.  But  ministers  wdio 
nourish  the  love  of  power  for  its  own  sake  soon  lose  the 
love  of  souls,  and  they  also  lose  the  abiltty  to  win  souls ; 
for  they  lose  that  simplicity  of  spirit  which  is  the  pre- 
requisite to  the  gift  of  a  higher  "wisdom  and  skill ;  they 
cultivate  the  spirit  of  political  intrigue  and  management; 
they  grow  suspicious,  as  tyrants  do ;  they  become  dogmatic 
in  their  tone  of  preaching  and  conversation ;  they  drive 
away  from  them  independent  minds  ;  they  injure  the  cause 
of  truth  by  their  imperiousness  far  more  than  they  build  it 
up  by  their  abilities ;  they  work  by  power,  not  by  love. 
Such  a  type  of  minister,  although  often  a  man  of  great 
ability,  is  not  to  be  imitated,  yet  he  may  command  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  respect  and  admiration. 

(k.)    Peculiar  sjnritual  conflicts  in  matters  of  faith. 

A  minister  engaged  in  the  work  of  his  profession  is  no 
longer  the  merely  theoretic  and  philosophical  student,  but 
he  is  led  to  vital  studies  into  the  foundations  of  truth  ;  he 
comes  in  contact  with  the  practical  difficulties  of  Christian 
faith  in  the  human  heart ;  he  is  called  upon  to  give  reasons 
which  must  not  only  meet  the  argumentative  requirement, 
but  which  must    satisfy  the    awakened  and  earnest  moral 


§  32.       TRIALS    AND  REWARDS    OF    PASTOR.  417 

nature ;  and  he  is  thus  led  to  reconsider  his  whole  spiritual 
experience,  and  painfully  to  travel  over  his  field  of  personal 
faith  step  by  step,  which  he  swept  over  when  receiving 
these  things  as  a  student.  He  has  now  to  preach  positive 
truth ;  he  cannot  weigh  too  much  or  too  long ;  he  must 
preach  that  he  knows,  and  testify  that  he  has  seen.  He  is 
to  instruct  others  unto  eternal  life,  and  the  time  has  now 
come  for  him,  as  far  as  possible,  to  settle  these  things  ;  for 
men  like  to  be  led,  yes,  even  ruled,  in  such  things,  by  one 
in  whose  sincerity  and  faith  they  have  confidence  ;  and  there 
is  a  certain  lawful  and  scriptural  rulership  in  these  things  ; 
but  in  this  practical  aspect  of  truth  new  difficulties  spring 
up  which  never  occur  to  the  student  period  of  life.  The 
pastor  is  staggered  by  the  operation  of  truth  Avhen  applied 
to  living  minds  ;  and  he  finds  men  who  believe  everything, 
and  yet  have  little  or  no  true  Christian  life,  as  well  as 
others  who  believe  little,  and  yet  are  apparently  true 
Christian  men.  Even  while  he  is  called  upon  to  review  his 
own  faith,  and  struggle  through  these  new  clouds  of  doubt 
and  difficulty,  he  must  preach  on;  and  he  cannot  speak  of 
his  difficulties  to  those  whom  he  is  trying  to  lead  in  a  plain 
path. 

Another  phase  of  this  spiritual  trial  and  conflict  is  a  con- 
sciousness often  of  the  want  of  a  lively  faith  on  his  own 
part,  especially  in  public  and  pulpit  exercises.  This 
coldness  and  dulness  seem  to  him  as  bad  as  doubt ;  his 
mind  is  filled  with  self-reproaches  ;  and  is  it  not  true  that  a 
preacher  should  not  say  more  than  he  feels  ?  that  he  should 
not  go  beyond  his  convictions?  He  should  be  true  to 
himself,  whatever  happens,  and  he  should  fight  his  way 
through  by  prayer  and  striving  to  a  higher  spiritual  point 
of  view ;  and  this  is  to  be  said,  that  often  his  difficul- 
ties will  be  suddenly  cleared  away,  when  he  actually 
engages  in  some  service  of  the  ministry ;  for  example,  dur- 
ing the  invocatory  prayer,  or  in  the  first  words  of  the 
sermon,  his  good  heart  comes  to  him  again ;  and  an  invisi- 


418         ■  PASTOKAL    OFFICE. 

ble  Spirit  will  seem  to  help  him,  cand  attune  his  spirit  to  the 
service  before  him.  Besides,  we  are  not  always  responsible 
for  our  feelings  ;  but  we  are  for  our  principles. 

(I.)  The  anxious  thought  that  he  is  not  doing  his  whole 
dutij  to  souls  committed  to  him.. 

This  is  the  greatest  trial  of  a  faithful  minister,  and  he 
cannot  wholly  escape  it.  In  a  work  which  seems  to  require 
an  angel's  energy  and  watchfulness,  his  human  imperfec- 
tions appear  inexcusable  to  him  ;  and  in  times  of  weariness, 
this  sense  of  responsibility  presses  terribly  upon  him.  His 
only  escape  is  in  the  thought  that  he  is  not  responsible  for 
souls,  further  than  in  the  faithful  manifestation  of  the  truth 
to  them,  and  that  God  will  aid  him  to  bear  a  burden  which 
is  confessedly  too  great  for  a  human  being  to  bear  alone ; 
he  is  a  co-worker  with  God,  and  he  is  not  to  do  God's  part 
of  the  work. 

But  we  have  dwelt  too  long  upon  the  "  shady  side "  of 
the  picture  ;  there  is  a  bright  side,  and  the  brightness  far 
overpowers  the  darkness.  F.  W.  Robertson,  it  is  true,  sa3''s, 
that  the  shadows  predominate ;  but  his  temperament  was 
peculiarly  sensitive, — almost  morbidly  so,  —  and  his  faith, 
though  noble  and  profound,  seemed  to  be  wanting  in  tho 
element  of  hope  ;  he  had  the  principle  of  self-sacrifice  with- 
out that  of  cheerful,  trustful  self-forgetfulness. 

The  rexvards  of  the  ftiithful  pastor,  truly  doing  Christ's 
work,  are  no  less  sure  than  his  trials ;  his  trials  are  inci- 
dental, his  rewards  are  intrinsic  and  inalienable. 

(a.)  The  assurance  of  Christ's  constant  joresence  with 
him.  If  his  office  is  divinely  instituted,  it  will  be  divinely 
sustained ;  and  the  promise  of  Christ  to  his  ministers  is, 
"  Lo,  I  am  ivith  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.'^ 
Christ  lives,  and  has  an  absolute  control  over  the  affairs  of 
his  kingdom,  and  a  personal  interest  in  all  who  love  him, 
especially  those  who  are  doing   his  work ;  he  aids  them, 


§   32.       TRIALS    AND    REWARDS    OF   PASTOR.  419 

he  gives  them  unseen  encouragement,  he  frees  them  from 
then'  difficulties.  It  is  an  indescribable  help  to  a  minister 
to  believe  that  if  he  is  doing  Christ's  work,  Christ  is  pres- 
ent to  help  him,  and  he  may  say  with  Paul,  or  Peter,  or 
Luther,  "  Our  sufficiency  is  of  God.''''  He  is  not  obliged  to 
make  new  truth,  but  he  is  simply  to  use  the  old  divine 
truth,  always  powerful,  always  sufficient:  "hence,"  in  the 
words  of  Robert  Hall,  "this  ministers  of  Christ  are  not 
dependent  for  success  on  the  force  of  moral  suasion;  they 
are  not  merely  the  teachers  of  an  external  religion,  which 
includes  truths  the  most  momentous,  but  they  are  also  the 
instruments  through  whom  a  supernatural  agency  is  exerted. 
In  the  conversion  of  souls,  we  are  not  to  compare  the  diffi- 
culties to  be  surmounted  with  the  feeble  resources  of  human 
jjower,  but  with  His  with  whom  nothing  is  impossible."  ^ 

{b.)  He  has  a  ministry  of  life,  love,  peace,  good  will  to 
men. 

He  has  a  ministry  of  life,  and  he  should  never  represent  it 
as  a  ministry  of  death  or  condemnation.  It  is  a  living,  not 
a  dead  Christ,  that  he  preaches;  death  to  sin,  indeed,  with 
the  crucified  Redeemer,  but  life  to  righteousness  with  the 
risen  Lord.  Men  are  responsible  for  their  own  destruction. 
"  But  if  our  gospel  be  Jdd,  it  is  hid  to  them  that  are  lost;  in 
whom  the  god  of  this  icorld  hath  blinded  the  minds  of  them 
which  believe  not,  lest  the  light  of  the  glorious  gospel  of 
Christ,  who  is  the  image  of  God,  should  shine  unto  them." 
The  gospel  has  nothing  to  do  with  men's  death ;  it  belongs 
to  an  entirely  different  sphere  of  things ;  it  is  wholly  a 
remedial  system ;  it  is  directed  altogether  to  men's  good. 
The  true  minister  of  Christ  can  say  to  his  people,  "i^or 
we  are  helpers  of  your  joy:"  he  is  to  do  good,  to  pro- 
mote happiness ;  and  he  is  never  tempted  by  his  legitimate 
work  to  turn  aside  to  any  pursuit  which  will  cause  evil 
of  any  kind.      "  Therefore,  seeing  we  have  this  ministry  " 

'  Discouragements  and  Supports  of  the  Christian  Minister. 


420  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

(so  good,  benevolent,  hopeful,  life-producing),  "as  we  have 
received  mercy,  we  faint  not." 

Let  the  minister  feel  in  his  whole  being  the  enthusiasm 
of  a  great  cause,  of  a  cause  whose  spirit  is  nnsellish  love, 
and  whose  triumph  is  the  good  and  happiness  of  men. 

(c.)  He  dwells  in  commimion  with  high,  jyure,  and  divine 
things.  He  does  not  plunge  daily  into  the  defilements  of 
worldly  business,  and  breathe  the  corrupt  air  of  the  market 
or  the  stock  exchange.;  but  his  business  is  to  care  for  the  in- 
terests of  God;  and  even  while  he  walks  among  men,  and 
all  kinds  of  men,  he  does  not  catch  the  infection  of  worldly 
care  in  which  they  live,  but  at  all  times,  and  on  all  days,  he 
dwells  in  the  gates  of  the  Lord's  house,  and  serves  in  his 
temple;  he  lives  in  the  highest  thoughts  which  can  employ 
a  mind,  and  by  the  nature  of  his  work,  he  is  brought  into 
constant  fellowship  with  the  Father  and  with  his  Sou  Jesus 
Christ. 

(d.)  He  can  regard  the  fruits  of  his  labors  as  enduring. 
His  labors  are  beneficial  to  this  world  and  to  this  life  in  the 
building  up  of  a  Christian  civilization  ;  but  his  real  work  is 
is  to  build  up  a  commonwealth  that  is  to  last  as  long  as 
God  endures.  If  he  has  aided  souls  to  find  peace  in 
Christ,  no  poAver  can  take  from  him  this  satisfaction ;  it 
partakes  of  the  divine  blessedness.  And  his  work  is  not  in 
vain,  even  if  apparently  unsuccessful ;  for  how  many  in  his 
congregation  become  Christians  who  do  not  think  they  are 
such !  Another  minister  follows  him  in  the  field  of  his 
labors,  and  suddenly  there  is  a  revival  of  religion,  and 
many  souls  are  brought  into  the  kingdom  of  God ;  but  this 
may  spring  from  his  preparative  agency,  more  than  from 
the  new  laborer's  instrumentality ;  the  seed  he  has  long 
before  sown,  comes  up  in  a  night. 

(e.)  He  enjoys  the  gratitude  and  affection  of  the  good. 
There  is  nothing  of  any  real  value  to  us  excepting  the  love 
of  God  and  of  the  good.  The  faithful  pastor  is  the  centre 
of  numberless  affections,  hopes,  and  prayers  ;  he  is  enshrined 


§  32    '  TRIALS   AND   REWARDS   OF   PASTOR.  421 

in  the  hearts  of  his  people.  He  has  joined  the  parents  in 
holy  matrimony,  he  has  baptized  the  infant,  he  has  blessed 
the  child,  he  has  instructed  the  youth ;  he  has  been  the  cen- 
tre of  many  a  family  group  in  the  most  tender  and  sorrow- 
ful times  ;  he  has  been  with  his  people  in  storm  and  shine, 
and  has  fought  their  spiritual  battles,  and  shared  in  their 
triumphs;  and  why  should  he  not  be  dear  to  them?  The 
true  pastor  never  can  know  how  much  he  is  honored  and 
beloved  :  he  is  possessor  of  wealth  to  which  the  world  could 
add  nothins'. 

(f.)  He  has  the  consciousness  oi  employing  his  powers  in 
such  a  way  as  to  bring  in  the  fullest  returns.  His  mind  can 
use  its  best  energies  to  the  best  advantas^e.  There  is  no 
profession  in  which  a  man,  if  his  heart  is  in  it,  has  the  op- 
portunity of  exerting  every  faculty  to  better  purpose,  for 
more  direct  good,  than  in  the  Christian  ministry.  If,  for 
example,  his  field  is  at  the  growing  West,  on  the  boundless 
prairie,  or  among. the  rugged  gold-veined  mountains  of  the 
central  territories,  he  can  build  up  the  Christian  state  while 
he  is  building  up  the  Christian  church ;  and  in  all  good 
works,  reform  movements,  education,  science,  the  cause  of 
civil  freedom,  every  civilizing  and  refining  influence,  to 
say  nothing  of  higher  results,  he  can  do  more  for  society 
and  the  individual  man  than  in  any  other  possible  posi- 
tion ;  for  he  deals  with  first  principles,  with  the  formative 
powers  of  character  and  society,  with  the  moral  and  reno- 
vating forces  of  human  life,  and  thus  his  profession  is  the 
economy  of  benevolent  power  on  earth. 

(</.)  He  may  look  with  hope  to  a  final  blessed  recompense. 
He  has  a  great  reward  already  in  possession  here  in  his  own 
heart;  but  the  promises  of  reward  to  come  are  infinitely 
rich  toward  those  who  work  for  God,  in  Christ-like  labors, 
directed  to  the  spiritual  good  and  salvation  of  men. 

In  fine,  although  the  pastor  has  his  trials,  in  order  that  he 
may,  in  some  sense,  resemble  Christ,  and  have  fellowship 
with  Him,  in  his  sufferings,  who  was  made  perfect  through 
36 


422  PASTORAL   OFFICE.  | 

suffering,  aud  was  a  High  Priest  that  can  be  touched  with 
9  feeling  of  our  infirmities,  because  he  was  tempted  like  as 
we  are,  yet,  taken  altogether,  the  life  of  the  ministry  is 
generally  a  happy  one.  God  will  honor  those  men  Avho 
honor  him  ;  and  though  they  deserve  nought  at  his  hands, 
aud  are  unprofitable  servants,  he  abundantly  rewards  the 
sincere  labors  of  those  who  strive  to  serve  him.  Ministers 
are  happy  and  cheerful  men  —  none  more  so ;  for  they 
live  in  an  atmosphere  of  goodness,  noble  pursuits,  high 
studies,  benevolent  activities,  and  reasonable  enjoyments. 
Nothing  innocent  is  debarred  from  them  any  more  than 
from  other  Christians,  and  they  should  be  the  promoters 
of  the  happiness  as  well  as  the  faith  of  their  people. 

But,  after  all,  neither  trials  nor  rewards  are  to  be  much 
thought  of:  happiness  is  not  the  great  thing;  the  minis- 
ter of  Christ  should  live  upon  a  higher  plane  of  motives, 
and  should  walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight.  He  should  regard 
it  as  the  noblest  of  privileges  to  be  allowed  to  follow  Christ 
through  good  and  evil  report,  and  to  preach  him  to  men. 
He  should  be  able  to  say,  "  /  thank  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord^ 
who  hath  enabled  me;  for  that  he  counted  one  faitliful, 
putting  me  in  the  ministry,''^  He  should  have  a  spirit  not 
only  to  discharge  his  duty  faithfully,  but  a  spirit  of  freedom 
and  praise;  he  should  feel  that  it  is  his  meat  and  drink,  his 
life,  his  joy,  to  do  the  will  of  his  Master,  and  to  finish  the 
work  he  has  given  him  to  do. 


PART    SECO^^D. 

THE  PASTOR  AS  A  MAN. 


§  33.     Spiritual  Qualifications. 

The  pastor,  though  he  is  not  called  upon  to  be  a  better 
man  than  any  other  disciple  of  Christ,  is  naturally  expected 
to  be  in  some  sort  a  representative,  a  typical  Christian  ;  ^  for 
to  him  men  come  to  drink  as  to  a  spring.  There  should, 
therefore,  be  in  him  an  abounding  spiritual  life ;  nor  should 
he  be  in  the  apostle's  language  a  ^'novice"  in  things  belong- 
ing to  God.  It  is  presumed  that  there  can  be  no  question 
on  the  antecedent  point,  that  the  Christian  pastor  should  be 
a  true  "  disciple."  One  may,  indeed,  be  deceived  respecting 
himself;  but  he  whose  business  it  is  to  convert  men  to  Christ 
should  himself  be  converted ;  he  who  is  to  guide  believers 
should  himself  be  a  man  of  faith. 

To  do,  indeed,  all  that  a  perfect  pastor  should  do,  he 
should  be  a  perfect  man,  filled  with  the  Spirit  of  God. 
Where  shall  such  a  man  be  found?  There  was  never  but 
one  such  man  —  one  such  pastor.  The  gospel  is  committed 
to  imperfect  men ;  and  yet,  after  all,  how  dare  we  present  a 
low  or  manifestly  defective  standard  for  the  pastor  of  souls  ? 
At  what  point  can  we  affirm  that  he  has  a  right  to  fail,  or  to 
fall  short  of  the  mark? 

Gregory  of  Naziauzen,  quoted  by  Vinet,  says,  "We 
must  first  be  pure,  and  then  purify  others  ;  b6  taught,  then 

'  1  Tim.  4:  12. 

(423) 


424  PASTOKAL   OFFICE. 

teach  others  ;  become  light,  and  then  enlighten  others  ;  draw 
near  to  God  ourselves,  and  then  induce  others  to  approach 
him  ;  sanctify  ourselves,  and  then  make  others  holy."  The 
Christian  pastor  should  be  able  to  say  with  the  primitive 
ministers  of  Christ  (1  Cor.  2:  12,  13),  "Now  we  have  re- 
ceived, not  the  spirit  of  the  icorld,  but  the  spirit  which  is  of 
God,  that  ive  might  know  the  things  that  are  freely  given  to 
us  of  God,  which  things  also  we  spealc,  not  in  the  words 
which  man's  wisdom  teachefh,  but  tvhich  the  Holy  Ghost 
teacheth,  comparing  spiritual  things  luith  spiritual.^' 

In  respect  to  spiritual  qualifications,  therefore,  we  would 
lay  it  down  as  an  axiom,  that,  not  only  for  his  own  wel- 
fare, but  for  power  in  his  ministry,  the  pastor's  first  reli- 
gious duty  is  to  himself  and  his  own  soul.  He  is  to  be 
careful  first  of  all,  and  with  great  solicitude,  that  the  life  of 
God  is  kept  strong  and  pure  within  him.  1  Tim.  4 :  16, 
"  Talce  heed  to  thyself  and  to  thy  doctrine,  for  in  so  doing  thou 
shall  save  thyself  and  those  that  hear  thee."  The  example  of 
Dr.  Chalmers,  who  was  brought,  Avhen  at  the  age  of  thirty, to  a 
deeper  experience  of  the  truth,  if  not  for  the  first  time  brought 
into  the  kingdom  of  God  by  the  renewing  of  his  heart,  some 
time  after  he  had  become  a  settled  minister,  is  a  familiar 
and  most  striking  example  of  the  new  power  that  comes 
into  a  ministry,  when  the  pastor  once  receives  the  true  spirit 
of  the  gospel  into  his  own  heart.  ^ 

A  man's  power  in  any  field  of  religious  work  is  in  pro- 
jDortion  to  his  inward  appropriation  of  God  by  faith.  "Faith 
is  the  law  upon  whose  actuating  energy  God  has  made  the 
life  which  we  have  in  him  to  depend ;  and  we  can  no  more 
detach  what  we  do  in  our  lives  from  what  we  are  in  our 
souls,  than  we  can  separate  heat  or  light  from  their  essential 
principles,  or  expect  to  enjoy  either  in  the  absence  of  the 
conditions  in  which  their  existence  is  involved."  God,  com- 
municating himself  through  his  Spirit,  "  enabled "  the  first 

■  '  '  Hanna's  Life  of  Chalmers,  vol.  i.,  pp.  166,  268,  341,  421,  424. 


§  33.      SPIRITUAL   QUALIFICATIONS.  425 

ministers,  —  that  is,  endued  them  with  power,  —  to  do  the 
works  that  they  did  for  the  triumph  of  the  gospel.  If  a 
man,  then,  cuts  liimself  off  from  the  spring,  he  ma}^  have  all 
the  conduits,  and  the  most  scientific  sj'stem  of  irrigation, 
but  his  garden  will  not  be  watered,  and  it  will  remain 
"a  dry  and  thirsty  ground."  "iVb^  hy  might,  nor  by  jpower, 
but  by  my  spirit,  saitli  the  Lord.'"  The  author  from  whom 
we  have  just  quoted  says,  "  The  disciples  showed  that 
they  were  aware  of  this  by  that  remarkable  answer,  when 
enjoined  by  their  Master  to  the  practice  of  forgiveness, 
'Lord,  increase  our  faith;'  we  might  have  expected,  when 
a  moral  duty  difficult  to  the  natural  man  was  in  ques- 
tion, the  words  would  have  been,  'increase  our  charity;' 
but  in  the  conviction  that  obedience  was  only  practicable 
through  a  strenorth  and  virtue  that  did  not  reside  in  them- 
selves,  their  prayer  was  for  an  increase  of  the  faculty 
through  which  alone  the  divine  aid  can  be  made  available 
by  the  soul."  The  spiritual  qualifications  of  a  minister  for 
his  work  thus  lie  altogether  in  his  relations  to  God,  if  they 
are  real  and  living  relations. 

If  this  life  of  God  is  in  the  pastor's  soul,  and  if  he  has 
been  truly  called  to  the  ministry  of  Christ,  the  next  thing 
required  of  him  is,  to  keep  this  divine  gift,  or  calling,  alive. 
2  Tim.  1:6,  "  I  put  thee  in  remembrance,  that  thou  stir  up 
the  gift  of  God  which  is  in  thee;  "  for  this  is  a  spiritual  gift, 
the  peculiar  ministerial  gift  of  the  love  of  Christ's  work  in 
the  conversion  of  souls.  This  first  love,  this  youthful  zeal, 
this  flame  which  fell  from  heaven,  consecrating  him  to  the 
work  of  saving  men's  souls,  may  abate.  When  he  meets 
with  serious  antagonisms,  he  may  be  discouraged ;  when  he 
is  assailed  by  the  temptations  of  a  worldly  spirit,  he  may 
give  way,  and  grow  cold  ;  he  may  think  himself  beyond  dan- 
ger, and,  being  busy  with  the  spiritual  affairs  of  others,  he 
may  forget  to  look  within  his  own  spirit,  and  to  watch  over 
his  owui  heart.  As  a  public  man,  also,  he  may  suppose  that 
he  has  no  time  for  himself,  and  that  it  is  true  self-sacrifice 
36* 


426  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

not  to  think  of  himself.  He  has  also  unusual  spiritual  bur- 
dens to  bear,  and  the  higher  we  go  up  a  mountain,  the  heavier 
our  burden  grows,  and  the  more  diiBcult  is  every  effort  to  sus- 
tain it.  The  minister  thus  moves  in  a  rarer  atmosphere  than 
other  men  move  in  ;  a  constant  tension  of  soul  is  required  of 
him  ;  he  is  not  permitted  to  descend  the  mountain  and  breathe 
the  easier  air  of  lower  thoughts  and  pursuits,  but  he  dwells 
on  the  heights  ;  from  the  pulpit  he  goes  to  the  lecture-room, 
from  the  lecture-room  to  the  bedside  of  the  sick,  from  the 
sick-bed,  to  the  prayer-meeting,  from  that  to  his  studies,  and 
from  his  studies  to  his  pulpit  again ;  his  yearly,  weekly, 
hourly  thought  is,  mainly,  on  high  spiritual  themes.  That  is 
in  one  sense  a  great  privilege,  and  in  another  a  great  trial ; 
for  it  is  a  state  of  mind  which  requires  constant  watching  and 
renewal,  lest  there  be  an  over-tension,  lest  the  spirit  grow 
dull,  the  fire  go  out,  and  the  gift  of  God  become  dead 
within  him. 

The  simple  methods  that  we  would  suggest  by  which  a 
minister  should  strive  to  maintain  his  spirituality  of  mind, 
and  his  spiritual  gift  as  a  minister  of  Christ,  are  threefold, 
viz.,  by  meditation,  reading  the  Scriptures,  and  prayer. 

1.  Meditation.  Jeremy  Taylor,  speaking  of  religious 
meditation,  says,  "If  in  the  definition  of  meditation  I  should 
call  it  an  unaccustomed  and  unpractised  duty,  I  should 
speak  a  truth,  though  somewhat  inartificially,  for  not  only 
the  interior  beauties  and  brighter  excellences  are  as  unfelt  as 
ideas  and  abstractions  are,  but  also  the  practice  and  com- 
mon knowledge  of  the  duty  itself  are  strangers  to  us,  like 
the  retirements  of  the  deep,  or  the  undiscovered  treasures 
of  the  Indian  hills.  And  this  is  a  very  great  cause  of  the 
dryness  and  expiration  of  men's  devotion,  because  our  souls 
are  so  little  refreshed  with  the  waters  and  holy  dews  of 
meditation.  We  go  to  our  prayers  by  chance,  or  order,  or 
by  determination  of  accidental  occurrences,  and  we  recite 
them  as  we  read  a  book,  and  sometimes  we  are  sensible  of 
the  duty,  and  a  flash  of  lightning  makes  the  room  bright, 


§  33.       SPIRITUAL   QUALIFICATIONS.  427 

and  our  prayers  end,  and  the  lightning  is  gone,  and  we  are 
as  dark  as  ever.  We  draw  our  water  from  standing  pools, 
which  never  are  filled  but  with  sudden  showers,  and  there- 
fore we  are  dry  so  often ;  whereas,  if  we  would  draw  water 
from  the  fountains  of  our  Saviour,  and  derive  them  throuirh 
the  channel  of  diligent  and  prudent  meditations,  our  devo- 
tions would  be  a  continual  current,  and  safe  airainst  the 
barrenness  of  frequent  droughts.  For  meditation  is  an 
attention  and  application  of  the  spirit  to  divine  things;  a 
searching  out  of  all  instruments  to  a  holy  life,  a  devout  con- 
sideration of  them,  and  a  production  of  those  afiections 
which  are  in  a  direct  order  to  the  love  of  God  and  a  pious 
conversation.  Indeed,  meditation  is  all  that  great  instru- 
ment of  piety  whereby  it  is  made  prudent,  and  reasonable, 
and  orderly,  and  perpetual.  For,  supposing  our  memory 
instructed  with  the  knowledge  of  such  mysteries  and  reve- 
lations as  are  apt  to  entertain  the  spirit,  the  understanding 
is  first  and  best  employed  in  the  consideration  of  them,  and 
then  the  will  in  their  reception,  when  they  are  duly  pre- 
pared, and  so  transmitted ;  and  both  these  in  such  manner, 
and  to  such  purposes,  that  they  become  the  magazine  and 
repositories  of  grace,  and  instrumental  to  all  designs  of 
virtue." ^ 

Meditation  is  fixing  or  establishing  in  our  minds  those 
divine  truths  and  principles  which  have  a  direct  influence 
in  forming  a  holy  life.  By  thinking,  for  example,  on  the 
humility  of  Jesus,  by  making  it  the  subject  of  deep  medi- 
tation, by  fixing  this  truth  always  in  the  mind,  this  must 
have  an  effect  to  produce  the  same  humility  in  us.  Medita- 
tion, to  be  profitable,  must  not  always  dwell  upon  the  high- 
est mysteries  of  religion,  but  chiefly  upon  the  plainest  truths 
and  duties.  Jeremy  Taylor  says,  "High  speculations  are 
as  barren  as  the  tops  of  gedars ;  but  the  fundamentals  of 
Christianity  are  fruitful  as  the  valleys  or  the  creeping  vine.'* 

>  Jeremy  Taylor's  Works,  Bohn's  ed.,  toL  i.  p.  6G. 


428  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

The  understanding  and  imagination  are  to  be  held  in  re- 
straint in  meditation  —  not  suflered  to  Avander  from  one 
thiof''  to  another,  and  to  indulge  in  dreamy  musings,  or  even 
in  visions  of  heavenly  things  that  have  no  practical  bearing 
on  a  good  life ;  but  though  religious  meditation  may  some- 
times rise  to  holy  contemplation  of  heavenly  mysteries,  yet 
it  is  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  piety,  and  the  daily  Christian 
life,  and  therefore  the  fruits  of  meditation,  or  the  results 
and  decisions  of  meditation,  should  be  carried  into  practice, 
else  they  are  unprofitable. 

Monasticism  was  the  distortion  of  this  duty ;  for  it 
recognized  the  need  of  intervals  of  seclusion  from  earthly 
objects,  and  of  communion  with  one's  self  and  with  God ; 
since,  with  a  physical  and  sensitive  nature,  to  which  the  out- 
Avard  world  appeals,  one  must  withdraw  into  comparative 
solitude,  in  order  to  be  thus  entirely  with  one's  self;  but 
the  monkish  conception  failed  to  unite  the  idea  of  occasional 
solitude  with  the  noble  Christian  truth  of  a  common  human 
life  in  this  world  :  it  was  not  practical ;  it  made  solitude  an 
end,  and  not  a  means ;  it  was  a  partial  and  untrue  system 
of  education  in  holy  living.  Christ  gave  us  an  example, 
when,  from  the  scenes  of  a  life  filled  with  good  activity,  he 
wxnt  to  meditate  alone  on  the  mountain,  or  in  the  desert; 
and  how  much  more  do  his  imperfect  servants,  especially 
his  ministers,  whose  little  spiritual  life  soon  runs  out,  need 
to  have  it  replenished  from  silent  communion  with  the 
unseen  springs  of  life  ! 

To  be  always  in  society,  and  in  the  full  sight  and  hearing 
of  the  world,  as  some  ministers  seem  to  be,  makes  the  mind 
superficial,  and  such  a  man  cannot  have  profound  thoughts. 

To  be  alone  with  God,  and  to  lie,  as  it  were,  in  the 
shadow  of  his  presence,  bring  a  salutary  awe ;  the  soul's 
vanity,  pride,  selfishness,  dwindle,  and  the  nature  is  deep- 
ened, purified,  strengthened. 

Thoughts  on  spiritual  truth,  with  which  one  feeds  the 
minds   and   faith  of  hundreds,    cannot  be   conceived  in  a 


§  33.       SPIRITUAL   QUALIFICATIONS.  429 

croAvd,  but  only  in  that  contemplative  solitude,  into  which 
the  soul,  as  did  Christ  in  his  solitude,  carries  the  warm 
sj'rapathies  and  real  wants  of  men.  A  minister  accom- 
plishes more  who  mingles  thought  with  action,  and  blends 
meditation  with  toil.  As  his  convictions  are  deepened,  as 
his  purpose  is  more  centralized  ;  so,  when  he  throws  himself 
into  actual  duties  and  labors,  he  has  an  aim,  a  tenacity, 
a  force,  which  bear  him  beyond  the  possible  reach  of  other 
less  intense  and  less  concentrated  minds. 

The  time  of  preparation  for  the  work  of  the  ministry  is 
in  some,  though  not  all,  respects  such  a  period  of  medita- 
tive retirement ;  and  such  a  period  of  silent  study  and  prep- 
aration is  not  lost  time.  Christ  waited  thirty  years  in 
seclusion  before  he  began  to  preach  the  gospel.  The  seasons 
also  of  vacation,  to  a  settled  pastor,  may  be,  to  some  ex- 
tent, spent  in  this  way,  not  only  for  the  renovation  of  the 
bodily,  but  of  the  spiritual  powers.  Let  him  go  into  the 
country,  or  the  woods,  or  the  wilderness,  and  be  alone 
with  God.  He  will  come  up,  like  John  the  Baptist  out  of 
the  wilderness,  to  move  the  city.  But  a  minister  should 
have  frequent  periods  of  complete  retirement;  and  he 
should  be  willing  to  let  the  literary  and  scientific  part 
of  his  profession  sufi'er  rather  than  to  lose  that  power 
which  comes  from  a  strong  and  healthy  state  of  the  reli- 
gious affections;  for,  at  the  present  day,  when  there  is 
so  much  of  energetic  working  for  Christ,  the  fear  is,  that 
the  type  of  piety  may  sometimes  have  more  activity  than 
depth. 

Meditation,  we  have  seen,  is  not  prayer,  nor  devotion, 
strictly  so  called,  although  it  is  a  highly  devotional  exer- 
cise. Vinet  says  its  etymology  explains  its  practice,  i.  e., 
."  it  is  getting  into  the  middle  of  things ; "  it  is  searching, 
not  in  a  speculative,  but  practical  spirit,  for  the  great  prin- 
ciples of  divine  truth  which  have  unchangeable  relations  to 
the  soul ;  and  it  is  also  the  patient  exploring  of  our  own 
hearts  to  find  out  their  spiritual  wants.     It  is  striving  to 


430  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

discover,  with  God's  help,  what  are  the  sources  of  our 
weakness  and  ill-success ;  and,  in  the  humble  tranquillity 
of  the  mind  to  meet  God,  to  question  him,  to  gain  from 
him  new  thoughts  of  truth,  and  new  desires  of  love  and 
obedience. 

Religious  meditation  thus  chiefly  concerns  itself  with  two 
classes  of  themes  —  divine  truth  and  personal  experience. 

"Our  meditation  of  God,"  Fdnelon  says,  "should  be 
guided  by  love  ; "  and  he  uses  the  illustration  of  the  think- 
ing of  a  child  about  an  absent  parent,  the  child  being  led 
thereto  by  his  pure  love  of  the  dear  object. 

One  ma}^  stimulate  his  meditation  upon  divine  truth  by 
reading  quickening  books,  especially  the  lives  of  Christians 
of  marked  power  and  faith,  such  as  Wayland's  Life  of 
Judaon,  Stanlej-'s  Life  of  Arnold,  the  Life  of  Frederick 
Perthes^  Augustine's  Confessions,  Neander's  Lfe  of  CJirys- 
ostom,  and  such  works  also  as  Thomas  a  Kempis'  Lnitation 
of  Christ,  the  Theologia  Germanica,  Jeremy  Taylor's  Life 
of  Jesus  Christ,  William  Law's  Serious  Ccdl  to  a  Holy 
Life,  Leighton's  Works,  Professor  Upham's  Literior  Life, 
and  his  other  writings  —  books  which,  though  they  have  a 
vein  of  mysticism  in  them,  have  substance  of  thought,  and 
are  truly  spiritual  books. 

Meditation  upon  personal  experience,  or  self-examina- 
tion, is  thought  less  of  at  present  than  formerly,  and  it  has 
been  said  that  Christ  did  not  teach  it.  It  has  undoubtedly 
been  carried  to  a  false  extreme,  so  that  it  became  an  unnatural 
and  injurious  self-inquisition  ;  and  now  there  is  come  the  re- 
action. But  this  duty  is,  when  sirapl}^  and  rightly  viewed, 
one  taught  both  by  conscience  and  Scripture.  A  Christian 
minister  should  surely  at  times  thoughtfully  ask  himself,  "Is 
the  plan  of  my  life  a  true  one?  Am  I  following  it  with  true 
motives?  Do  I  see  in  myself  the  beginnings  of  selfishness, 
or  of  a  worldly  spirit,  or  of  ministerial  jealousy,  ambition, 
and  cupidity  ?  Am  I  governed  by  a  desire  to  do  good  to 
men,  and  to  build  up  the  pure  cause  of  righteousness,  or 


§  33.       SPIRITUAL   QUALIFICATIONS.  431 

by  some  loAver  desire?  And  what  am  I  preaching?  the 
truth  of  the  Son  of  God,  the  truth  of  the  cross,  or  my  own 
phih)sophy  ? 

Then  there  are  frequently  cases  in  a  parish  of  a  difficult 
nature,  of  peculiar  religious  experience,  or  of  obstinate 
resistance  to  the  light,  which  require  special  thought ;  and 
there  is  always  the  great  question  to  be  revolved,  How  is 
Christian  truth,  how  is  the  love  of  God,  to  be  brought 
home  to  the  hearts  of  young  and  old,  rich  and  poor,  edu- 
cated and  ignorant?  Such  questions  lead  a  man  deep  into 
himself  and  into  God. 

They  must  be  settled  away  from  the  noise  of  men  and 
the  world. 

2.  Reading  the  Scriptures.  If  a  minister  always  comes 
to  the  Bible  in  an  intellectual  and  critical  spirit,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  procuring  themes  for  sermons,  or  of  propping  up 
his  theological  theories,  he  will  deprive  his  spiritual  nature 
of  its  proper  nourishment.  It  is  a  delightful  thing  to  meet 
a  minister  who  has  both  an  intellectual  and  a. spiritual  appre- 
hension of  the  Scriptures — who  is  "a  Bible  man"  —  who 
feeds  upon  the  hidden  manna  of  the  word,  and  who  is  taught 
by  a  wisdom  higher  than  that  of  the  schools. 

It  is  well  to  select,  on  some  plan,  as  the  lesson  for  the 
day,  a  definite  chapter,  half  chapter,  or  sometimes  single 
passage  or  sentence,  although  more  than  this  may  be  read, 
if  we  seek  for  actual  progress  in  the  nnderstanding  of 
the  word  of  God  ;  but  we  are  often  so  feeble  in  our  spiritual 
life,  that  if  we  can  but  maintain  our  life  it  is  a  great  thing. 
In  reading  the  Bible  for  spiritual  and  devotional  ends,  the 
mind  should  not  be  allowed  to  run  into  a  speculative  cur- 
rent—  the  search  after  stranije  thins^s ;  but  the  endeavor 
should  be  simply  to  know  how  God  speaks  to  our  souls  in 
his  word.  Our  studies  and  meditations  should  be  as  simple 
as  possible — just  the  wellings  up  into  our  hearts  of  the 
spring  of  divine  truth,  which  we  open ;  it  is  letting  God 
speak  to  and  in  us  by  his  word,  and  listening  to  his  voice  iu 


432  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

silence.  In  all  our  reading  of  the  Bible,  we  should  seek  to 
find  Him  who  is  revealed  therein  —  God  as  Redeemer ;  and 
if  we  do  not  read  much,  let  it  be  with  great  earnestness  of 
desire  to  know  more  of  God's  manifestation  of  himself  in 
Chi-ist,  in  whom  dwelt  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily  — 
to  get  a  daily  glimpse  of  the  face  of  Jesus. 

We  wish  to  impress  the  truth  that  a  minister  has  such  a 
constant  drain  upon  his  spiritual  strength  and  resources, 
that  he  must  have  constant  replenishing  from  divine  sources 
to  enable  him  to  sustain  this  demand.  To  use  a  homely 
simile,  a  laboring  man  needs  more  food  than  other  men;  so 
a  man  who  labors  in  the  word  requires  more  spiritual  nour- 
ishment than  others. 

3.  Prayer.  In  speaking  of  prayer  at  this  time,  we  refer 
to  secret  prayer  —  to  the  drawing  nigh  to  God  for  one's  own 
spiritual  guidance,  health,  and  salvation.  Prayer  is  the  ac- 
tual contact  of  the  soul  with  God,  with  that  divine  person- 
ality who  is  the  source  of  its  life,  from  contact  with  whom 
springs  new  strength.  Much  has  been  written  on  prayer, 
but  no  one  has  ever  solved  its  dynamics,  for  it  belongs  to 
the  unrevealed  mysteries  of  our  relations  with  God ;  but 
however  mysterious,  prayer  is  a  real  application  of  the  soul 
to  God  for  aid,  with  the  perfect  contidence  of  a  child,  laying 
open  the  most  secret  thoughts,  the  inmost  wants,  to  the 
heavenly  Father.  Such  prayer  is  necessar}^  to  make  an 
earnest  ministry.  It  should  be  secret,  habitual,  frequent. 
The  minister,  who,  in  addition  to  his  own  great  wants  and 
sins,  has  the  burden  of  souls  resting  upon  him,  needs  a 
double  portion  of  the  spirit  of  prayer.  He  should  be  a 
prayerful  man,  — 

(a.)  That  he  may  be  kejyt  in  the  sj>irit  of  his  work. 
Our  Lord  said  to  his  disciples,  ^'  Howheit  this  kind  goeth 
not  out  but  by  prayer  and  fasting  ;  "  which  might  mean 
power  to  work  in  cooperation  with  God,  and  in  the  spirit  of 
Christ,  in  his  ministry  —  power  to  convert  men,  which  in 
some  sense  is  a  miraculous  Avork.     The  apostles  evidently 


§  33.       SPIRITUAL   QUALIFICATIONS.  433 

remembered  these  words  of  the  Lord,  when  they  afterward 
told  the  church  to  choose  men  for  the  secular  business  .of 
the  church,  "5m<  we  loill  give  ourselves  to  ^prayer  and  to  the 
ministry  of  the  tvord." 

While  the  disciples  were  praying  together,  the  Holy  Spirit 
came  upon  them,  and  consecrated  them  to  their  work;  and 
in  this  way  they  received  special  preparation  for  it.  As  the 
ministry  is  a  work  of  faith,  so  the  life  of  faith,  is  prayer.  St. 
Bernard  is  quoted  as  saying,  "  Utilis  lectio,  utilis  eruditio, 
sed  magis  necessaria  unctio,  quippe  quae  docet  ah  omnibus.''^ 
This  heavenly  imction,  this  anointing  of  the  Holy  Ghost  the 
Enlightener,  this  spirit  of  life,  light,  and  power,  which  enters 
into  all  things,  and  uses  all  for  edification,  comes  through 
prayer ;  and  we  may  say,  that  prayer  prepares  for  study, 
work,  preaching — every  duty.  It  wins  for  us  the  harmoni- 
ous cooperation  of  the  Spirit,  it  keeps  our  minds  in  a  clear, 
healthy,  courageous,  hopeful,  loving,  believing  tone.  Vinet 
finely  remarks  on  this  point  (Pas.  Theol.,p.  115),  "Prayer 
is  necessary  to  keep  us  at  the  proper  point  of  vision,  which 
is  always  escaping  from  us,  to  heal  the  wounds  of  self-love 
and  of  feeling,  to  renew  our  courage,  to  anticipate  the 
always  threatened  invasion  of  indolence,  of  levity,  of  dila- 
toriness,  and  spiritual  aud  ecclesiastical  pride,  of  pulpit 
vanity,  of  professional  jealousy.  Prayer  resembles  the  air 
of  certain  isles  of  the  ocean,  the  purity  of  which  will  allow 
no  life  to  vermin.  With  this  atmosphere  we  should  com- 
pass ourselves  about,  as  the  diver  surrounds  himself  with 
the  bell  before  he  descends  into  the  sea." 

(6.)  T\vAi\\G  mi\jh&  a  true  interpreter  of  the  icord.  Dr. 
Owen  said,  "For  a  man  solemnly  to  undertake  the  interpre- 
tation of  Scripture  without  invocation  of  God  to  be  taught 
and  instructed  by  his  Spirit,  is  a  provocation  of  him  ;  nor 
shall  I  expect  the  discovery  of  truth  from  any  one  who  thus 
proudly  engages  in  a  work  so  much  above  his  ability.  With- 
out this  one  cannot  be  satisfied  that  he  hath  attained  the 
mind  of  the  Spirit  in  any  divine  revelation." 
37 


434  PASTORAL  OFFICE. 

Scholarly  ministers  are  sometimes  tempted  to  neglect  this 
hiijhcr  Jiicl  ;  but  divine  truth  will  not  let  itself  be  won  by 
intellectual  methods,  and  one,  as  of  old,  must  still  be  taught 
directly  by  Christ,  who  reveals  more  to  the  prayerful  spirit 
than  he  does  to  the  keenest  scholarship ;  and  this  is  not  dis- 
paraging scholarship.  As  an  illustration  of  that  remark, 
Leighton's  commentaries  on  the  Epistles  of  Peter  are  fruits 
of  such  a  prayerful  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures ;  and 
though  their  learning  may  be  far  exceeded,  yet  their  teach- 
ing quality,  the  light  beyond  reason,  the  unction  and  heav- 
enly wisdom  in  them,  probably  never  will  be  excelled. 

(c.)  Thai  he  may  be  an  intercessor  for  the  souls  of  his 
people.  The  intercessory  prayer,  as  has  been  before  said, 
seems  to  belong  peculiarly  to  the  pastor,  for  he  must  pray 
for  those  for  whom  he  is  in  some  true  sense  responsible. 
Paul  said  of  his  flock,  ^'^ I  make  mention  of  you  always  in  my 
prayers; "  and  if  a  minister  has  a  true  idea  of  his  work,  he 
will  not  neglect  the  instrumentality  of  prayer  —  prayer  for 
the  Holy  Spirit,  who  alone  makes  the  truth  efiectual. 

(tZ.)  That  he  may  accomplish  great  things  in  his  ministry. 
The  ministry  is  itself  the  greatest  of  works  when  it  simply 
accomplishes  its  own  ends ;  but  it  may,  by  the  help  of  God, 
have  something  of  the  ancient  apostolic  power. 

At  the  open  grave  of  John  Evangelist  Gossner,  it  was 
said  of  him,  "He  prayed  up  the  walls  of  hospitals;  he 
prayed  mission  stations  into  being,  and  missionaries  into 
faith ;  he  prayed  open  the  hearts  of  the  rich,  and  gold  from 
the  most  distant  lands;"  As  for  his  sermons,  the  power  of 
his  words  was  evidently  in  the  prayer  which  winged  them 
with  a  resistless  force  to  the  hearts  of  his  hearers  ;  for  prayer 
was  the  breath  of  his  life.  "Here  I  sit,''  he  would  say,  "in 
my  little  room.  I  cannot  go  here  and  there  to  arrange  and 
order  everything ;  and  if  I  could,  who  knows  if  it  would  be 
well  done?  But  the  Lord  is  there,  who  knows  and  can  do 
everything,  and  I  give  it  all  over  to  him,  and  beg  him  to 
direct  it  all,  and  order  it  after  his  holy  will ;  and  then  my 


§  34.      INTELLECTUAL   CULTURE.  435 

heart  is  light  and  joyful,  and  I  believe  and  trust  him  that  he 
will  carry  it  nobly  out."  This  man's  achievements  in  the 
cause  of  hh  Master  were  almost  incredible  in  their  variety 
and  vastness ;  and  Avhen  he  died,  the  universal  feeling  of 
the  hundreds  of  missionaries  whom  he  had  sent  forth  and 
sustained,  single-handed,  was  "  Who  will  now  pray  for  us?" 
This  was  the  spirit  of  Wesley,  of  Francke,  of  Luther,  of 
Zuingle,  of  Paul,  of  all  ministers  and  Christians  who  have 
ddue  great  works  for  Christ,  Avho  have  turned  men  from 
darkness  to  light,  who  have  saved  multitudes  from  per- 
ishing, who  have  built  up  great  benevolences,  who  have 
deepened  the  faith  of  their  age,  and  advanced  the  kingdom 
of  Christ  in  the  world.  They  have  been,  in  a  marked  de- 
gree, men  of  prayer,  "jelled  with  the  Holy  Ghost.'' 

§  34.     Intellectual  Culture. 

A  minister  should  have  before  him  a  high  ideal,  but  he 
should  at  the  same  time  regard  it  in  its  due  relations  of 
parts,  and  not  lose  sight  of  its  great  object ;  for  while  it 
partakes  of  the  nature  of  many  other  human  callings,  and 
has  much,  in  an  intellectual  point  of  view,  in  common  with 
them,  yet  it  rises  above  them,  and  stands  alone  in  this,  that 
it  is  a  work  in  the  domain  of  spirit,  that  it  is  supremely  a 
spiritimLwork,  that  its  chief  qualifications  are  spiritual. 

Intellectual  qualifications  come  in  their  proper  place,  and 
so  viewed  are  of  great  value.  Scholarly  culture  adds  power 
to  the  mind,  compacts  it,  toughens  it,  renders  it  a  more  pol- 
ished instrument ;  yet  to  make  this  scholarly  culture  the 
highest  aim  of  the  ministry  would  be  an  error,  for  the  foun- 
dation of  the  ministry  does  not  lie  in  the  sphere  of  human 
intellect,  but  of  those  things  which  are  objects  of  faith. 

In  reference  to  preaching  as  a  spiritual  exercise.  Dr. 
Skinner  has  some  weighty  remarks.  He  says,  "  The  nature 
of  preaching  as  spiritual  work  —  work  not  to  be  done  with- 
out the  cooperation  of  the  Spirit  —  acquaints  us  with  the  part 


43 G  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

which  prayer  has  in  preparing  for  it.  The  divine  does  not 
concur  -with  the  human,  in  this  free  and  holy  operation,  but 
at  the  urgent  and  continued  exertion  of  the  human.  May 
a  man  make  a  sermon  without  consciously  looking  to  the 
Spirit,  and  seeking  his  assistance,  when  without  this  ho  can- 
not read  the  Scriptures,  or  do  ought  else,  as  he  should?  It 
is  an  intuition  of  conscience  that  a  preacher  is  required,  by 
the  business  of  his  vocation,  to  be,  above  others,  a  man  of 
prayer.  Is  it  not  manifest  that  this,  in  truth,  must  be  t4ie 
main  business  with  ever}'^  preacher  who  really  regards 
preaching  as  an  impossibility  to  man  without  aid  from 
above?  He  will,  of  course,  give  to  the  work  study,  in- 
vention, the  closest  application  of  his  mind,  the  highest  use 
of  his  talent,  learning,  culture  ;  but  in  all,  and  more  than  all, 
he  will  be  praying  in  the  spirit  with  all  prayer  and  suppli- 
cation, that  the  H0I3'  Spirit  may  not  cease  to  work  mightily 
within  him,  illuminating,  sanctifying,  strengthening,  direct- 
ing, the  exercise  of  his  faculties,  until  he  has  completed  his 
preparation."  If  the  preacher  is  not  absorbed  in  the  divine 
idea  of  his  work,  in  its  dependence  upon  higher  spiritual 
power,  he  has  not  obtained  the  grand  conception  of  his 
work,  and  is  a  tyro  in  it,  or  worse.  If  he  cannot  hope  to 
impart  to  the  people  "  some  spiritual  gift,''  even  the  blessing 
of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  by  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  accompanying  the  word  preached,  he  should  cease  to 
strive  to  be  a  minister,  and  give  himself  to  some  lower  em- 
ployment. This  gift  of  the  Spirit  makes  all  men  one ;  and 
a  man  who  preaches  in  reliance  on  this,  and  in  the  spirit  of 
the  gospel,  can  reach  all  hearts,  and  his  education,  instead 
of  spoiling  him  as  a  preacher  to  ignorant  men,  will  fit  him 
to  be  a  better  preacher  to  them,  as  Christ  humbled  himself 
to  the  lowest  and  poorest  to  raise  them  up. 

The  true  preacher,  whose  love,  like  that  of  Paul,  yearns 
toward  every  man,  to  bring  him  to  the  knowledge  of  Christ, 
can  never  "drift  away"  from  any  human  heart,  or  any  Class 
of  human  beings,  though  he  were  the  first  scholar  in  the 


§  34.      INTELLECTU.VL   CULTURE.  437 

world.  His  scholarship  is  an  accident,  but  his  love  is  a 
permanent  condition  of  his  being ;  it  fills  him  with  a  higher 
spirit,  it  celestializes  his  nature,  it  makes  him  like  Christ 
in  the  comprehensiveness  of  his  sympathies,  it  annihilates 
human  distinctions,  and  gives  him  a  divine  view  of  man  and 
of  the  soul. 

Such  a  man  is  inwardly  compelled  to  cultivate  his  mind 
and  develop  all  his  powers,  that  he  may  have  more  to  give  to 
God,  more  to  use  in  the  service  of  this  divine  love,  and  that 
he  may  gain  thereby  other  talents  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 

1.  As  to  the  value  of  scholarly  culture  to  a  minister  of 
the  gospel.  That  may  be  seen  from  the  estimate  set  iipon  it 
in  the  Scriptures ;  for  while  dependence  on  human  Avisdom 
is  forbidden  in  the  Scriptures,  yet  knowledge,  study,  sound 
learning,  are  commended.  Mai.  2:  7,  "jPor  the  priest's 
lips  should  keep  knowledge.'"  It  was  the  Preacher  who  wrote 
(Prov.  18:  1),^^  Through  desire  a  man,  having  separated 
himself,  seeketh  and  intermeddleth  with  all  wisdom."  2  Tim. 
2  ;  15,  "  -4  ivorkman  that  needeth  not  to  be  ashamed,  right- 
It/  dividing  theivord  of  truth."  Paul's  quotations  show  not 
only  his  scholarship,  but  his  conception  of  the  legitimate  use 
of  learning  in  preaching. 

Every  kind  of  truth  which  is  in  conformity  to  fact,  or  to 
the  reality  of  things,  is  the  creation  of  God,  and  belongs,  in 
some  sense,  to  the  sphere  of  divine  things,  it  has  its  bear- 
ing on  the  highest  spiritual  truth ;  and  thus  the  most  purely, 
scientific  truth  is  not  without  use  in  the  knowledge  of  God. 
Christianity  is  not  a  religion  of  the  senses  or  of  forms,  but 
of  moral  truths,  and  is  thus  ever  on  the  side  of  the  highest 
intelligence. 

Scholarly  culture  is  also  valuable,  because  it  tends  to  make 
one  intellectually  humble.  Earnest  study  keeps  down  self- 
conceit,  since  it  causes  a  man  to  see  how  little  he  knows,  and 
what  are  the  limitations  of  human  knowledge,  and  what  is 
truth's  vastncss.  To  know  these  things  is  really  the  philo- 
sophical foundation  of  Christianity,  which  is  the  realization 
37* 


l^ 


438  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

of  human  nothingness,  and  its  need  of  higher  enlightenment. 
True  theology  is  humble,  because  it  has  gained  some  concep- 
tion of  the  incomprehensibility  of  the  infinite.  A  man  who 
studies  any  branch  of  science  sees  what  a  life-long  toil  it 
requires  to  make  himself  proficient  in  it,  to  say  nothing  of 
mastering  it.  By  study  in  any  direction,  in  any  department 
of  knowledge,  one  is  brought  to  so  many  doors  leading  into 
entirely  new  kingdoms  of  knowledge,  which  he  can  have  no 
hope  ever  to  explore,  that  he  grows  less  self-confident  every 
step  he  takes. 

Scholarly  culture,  yet  again,  is  valuable  to  the  minister 
as  a  2)reveniive  of  mental  i^overty.  An  instructor  who 
fails  to  keep  up  his  studies  is  fast  on  the  road  to  mental 
bankruptcy  ;  and  a  minister,  above  all,  has  this  necessity  of 
study  laid  upon  him,  because  he  cannot,  like  an  ordinary 
instructor,  change  his  class ;  lie  has  substantially  the  same 
hearers  before  him  for  years,  perhaps  for  a  lifetime,  and  all 
of  them  (or  it  should  be  so)  are  advancing  intellectually 
through  his  instructions.  In  the  course  of  years,  other 
things  being  equal,  a  minister  who  studies  and  one  who  does 
not  will  begin  to  exhibit  a  marked  clitference  in  their  influence 
upon  the  community,  and  in  the  estimation  in  which  they 
are  held.  People  discover  that  the  unstudious  man  is  re- 
peating himself,  and  that  he  is  living  on  his  old  stock  in 
trade ;  but  a  studious  man's  "profiting,"  or  actual  gain,  will 
"appear  unto  all."  Studious  ministers  wear  out  popular 
ministers,  and  grow  themselves  into  popularity,  if  they  are 
not  "Diyasdusts."  They  grow  imperceptibly  in  the  public 
confidence  ;  their  opinion  is  worth  more  than  other  men's ; 
they  have  more  weight  with  other  ministers.  In  the  pulpit 
they  will  gradually  gather  before  them  a  more  substantial 
class  of  hearers,  and  their  congregations  will  themselves 
advance  in  intelligence.  It  is  felt  that  they  rise  with  the 
increase  of  pressure  upon  them,  that  they  are  able  to  meet  the 
intellectual  demands  made  upon  them  by  the  best  and  lead- 
ing minds  in  the  church,  and  that  they  do  honor  to  the  town 


§  34.      INTELLECTUAL   CULTURE.  439 

or  community  where  they  live.  If  their  religious  character 
is  commensurate  with  their  intellectual,  they  come  to  be 
regarded  as  invaluable  servants  of  the  public,  and  their 
influence  for  good  is  immeasurable.  Besides  this,  the  mind 
untasked  is  weakened.  It  was  President  Wayland's  rule 
that  in  order  to  increase  the  force  of  our  mental  faculties 
we  should  use  them  to  the  utmost:  if  a  man  wishes  to  be-) 
come  a  thinker,  he  must  think  ;  if  a  reasoner,  he  must  reason. 
It  is  true  that  a  minister  can  sometimes  get  along  without 
severe  study,  and  he  could  probably  satisfy  the  intellectual 
requirements  of  here  and  there  a  parish  without  destroying 
himself  with  hard  study ;  yet  in  almost  all  of  our  New  Eng- 
land, and,  as  to  that.  Western  villages,  there  are  intellectual 
men,  men  of  education,  or,  at  all  events,  men  of  strong 
minds,  who  know  what  good  thinking  and  sermonizing  are  ;  so 
that,  if  one  does  not  study,  and  slips  along  with  the  aid  of  a 
facile  pen,  he  will  inevitably  lose  the  respect  of  his  people, 
or  of  those  best  capable  of  judging.  He  will  convince  them 
that  he  is  not  in  earnest.  He  will  also  deteriorate  as  a 
preacher.  John  Wesley  wrote  to  a  minister  who  had  neg- 
lected study,  "  Hence  your  talent  in  preaching  does  not 
increase ;  it  is  just  the  same  as  it  was  seven  years  ago.  It 
is  lively,  but  not  deep ;  there  is  little  variety ;  there  is  no 
compass  of  thought.  Reading  only  can  supply  this.  You 
can  never  be  a  deep  preacher  without  it,  any  more  than  a 
thorough  Christian."  1  It  is  the  glory  of  our  Congregation- 
al ministry  that  it  has  been,  as  a  general  rule,  a  scholarly 
ministry  ;  and  they  should  not  lose  this  preeminence,  or  trust 
to  any  fanciful  idea  of  ephemeral  popularity.  An  ancient 
church  father  wrote,  "  Oportet  enim  episcojnis  non  tantum 
docere,  sed  et  discere;  quia  et  ille  melius  docet,  qui  quotidie 
crescit  et  proficit  discendo  meliora."  ^ 

For  his  growth  then,  for  the  demands  of  Ms. own  mind, 

'  Stevens'  History  of  Methodism. 
2  Cyprian.  Epis.  74,  ad  Pompeium. 


440  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

for  his  incre:ise  in  actual  being,  power,  and  worth,  if  for  no 
other  reasons,  a  minister  should  be  a  diligent  student. 

True  scholarly  culture  also  prevents  a  one-sided  mental 
development.  A  person  engaged  in  one  course  of  study,  or 
labor,  however  important,  is  very  apt  to  become  exclusive 
and  one-sided,  and  is  inclined  to  view  everything  by  a 
strictly  professional  estimate,  and  to  think  that  studies  out 
of  his  own  line  are  altogether  unimportant.  One  may  thus 
be  a  theological  student  all  his  life,  and  nothing  else,  and 
he  may  have  little  conception  of  the  general  progress  of 
Bcience.  He  becomes,  perhaps,  a  strenuous  partisan  of 
some  theological  school ;  he  travels  around  the  same  circle 
of  ideas  ;  he  will  admit  nothing  new  into  his  mind,  and  thus 
he  gradually  narrows  his  mind  until  it  comes  to  a  very  small 
point  indeed ;  but  a  minister  of  the  all-comprehending,  all- 
loving  God  should  be  a  man  of  liberal  culture,  and  able 
himself  to  add  something  to  theology  from  the  other 
sciences.  Thus  if  he  is  a  student  of  mineralogy  or  geolo- 
gy, he  can  make  better  sermons ;  or,  if  he  is  a  man  who  is 
in  some  degree  of  harmony  with  the  advance  of  knowledge, 
his  preaching  will  have  a  freshness  of  proof  and  a  breadth  of 
illustration  that  will  delight  and  impress.  If  he  is  at  home 
in  human  knowledge,  his  people  will  feel  confidence  that  he 
is  well  instructed  in  divine  knowledge.  There  is  a  simple 
j)arable  sometimes  told  to  children.  A  certain  king  in- 
structed his  son  in  the  art  of  governing  men.  "  The  great  art 
of  governing,"  he  said,  "is  to  make  the  people  believe  that 
the  king  knows  more  than  his  subjects."  "But  how,"  asked 
the  sou,  "shall  he  make  men  believe  this?"  The  king  an- 
swered, "By  knowing  more."  He  who  instructs,  at  least  in 
those  things  in  which  he  instructs  others,  should  strive  to  be 
more  thoroughly  and  profoundly  informed  than  his  hearers. 
He  should  have  a  wide  margin  of  knowledge,  that  will  make 
him  a  free  instructor ;  he  should  teach  from  himself,  fi-om  the 
inward  richness  of  his  wisdom.  For  what  is  a  man  of  culture  ? 
He  is  one  who  has  developed  his  mind  from  the  centre  out- 


§  34.      INTELLECTUAL   CULTUEE.  441 

ward,  through  all  its  capacities  for  growth  and  improve- 
ment, and  who  has  left  no  part  of  his  nature  uncultivated. 

Scholarly  culture  also  has  its  influence  to  make  a  compre- 
hensive theologian.  We  arc  too  apt  to  view  theology  solely 
in  its  fixed  scientific  forms,  and  not  as  a  growing  knowledge 
of  God,  of  all  that  is  revealed  of  God,  which  comprises  all 
other  knowledgQS,  and  which  prompts  to  ever  wider  search 
and  generalization.  A  man  is  not  a  theologian  who  has  ac- 
quired some  facility  in  the  use  of  theological  terms,  or  who 
has  read  a  few  of  the  principal  theological  treatises  ;  there  is 
a  Greek  proverb  that  "  he  is  the  best  divine  who  divines 
most ; "  and  he  is  the  true  theologian  who  is  a  constant 
and  growino-  student  of  all  manifestations  of  the  divine  in 
nature,  man,  the  word,  and  the  spirit. 

Vinet  says,  "All  becomes  theology  for  a  theologian." 
There  is  a  theological  instinct  which  appropriates  everything 
of  God,  wherever  found ;  which  brings  all  knowledge  into 
an  organic  whole  ;  which  unites  free  scientific  investigation 
in  every  direction  around,  with  a  subordination  of  all  to  the 
spirit  of  Christ.  This  is  a  living  theology,  which  does  not 
sufi'er  itself  to  become  imprisoned  in  any  one  speculative 
school,  but  gathers  new  ideas  and  widens  its  dominion  over 
the  whole  field  of  truth ;  and  its  true  field  is  not  contro- 
versy, but  truth ;  it  is  impelled  by  the  love  of  truth, 
wherever  it  can  find  truth. 

2.  In  regard  to  the  nature  or  kind  of  ministerial  studies, 
of  course  theology  comes  first.  There  are  certain  truths 
which  God  has  placed  at  the  foundation,  and  that  cannot  be 
placed  at  the  top  without  breaking  through  and  destroy- 
ing the  whole  edifice  of  truth ;  and  the  minister  of  Christ 
shall  strive  to  discover  this  divine  order  and  system,  and  to 
arrive  at  essential  truth,  to  separate  the  real  from  the 
speculative,  the  true  from  the  empirical,  the  divine  from 
the  human.  This  every  minister  may  do,  to  some  extent, 
for  himself.  He  should  take  human  theologians,  not  in  the 
light  of  masters,  ''for  one  is  your  Master,  even  Christ"  but 


442  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

rather  as  jraidcs  to  some  higher  system  of  truth,  which, 
perhaps,  can  never  be  perfected  iu  this  world,  so  that  he  is 
always  a  student. 

Those  standard  theological  w^riters  whom  he  has  read, 
perhaps  fragmentarily  or  only  in  quotation,  he  should,  if 
possible,  begin  to  read  with  more  care  in  the  original;  and 
thus  he  comes  at  the  views  of  theologians  in  the  past  at 
first  hand,  for  they  belong  to  him  as  much  as  they  do  to 
any  other  theologian.  Of  course  the  chief  source  of 
theology  is  the  word  o^  God,  and  to  hold  to  the  true  inspira- 
tion of  the  word,  the  divine  revelation  of  God  that  there  is 
in  it,  without  bibliolatry,  to  be  ^'  able  ministers  of  the  New 
Testament,  not  of  the  letter,  hut  of  the  spirit,''  —  this  is  the 
narrow  and  difficult  road  which  the  theologians  of  the  pres- 
ent age  have  to  walk. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  say  that  jphilological  and  lingiiistic 
studies,  in  these  days,  belong  to  a  thorough  culture ;  in- 
deed, we  are  disposed  to  place  their  value  above  the  study 
of  theology  itself,  because  they  enable  the  minister  to  study 
the  Bible  independently,  and  to  arrive  at  original  views  of 
revealed  religion.  The  study  of  the  Hebrew,  though  it  is 
difficult,  yet,  after  the  scholar  has  broken  through  the 
rough  rind  of  the  language,  is  not  extremely  difficult  for 
practical  purposes,  and  it  affords  a  life-long  banquet ;  for 
in  the  Hebrew  we  seem  to  approach  to  the  simplicity  of 
nature,  and  perhaps  to  the  very  words  of  God.  Its  antique 
grandeur  and  unsoftened  strength,  seen  in  the  predominance 
of  the  consonantal  element,  and  the  preservation  of  the 
simple  root,  despising  inflections  which  cannot  be  grafted 
upon  the  root  itself,  —  the  radical  and  underived  superiority 
of  its  verbs,  showing  their  primitive  emotive  formation, — 
these  and  other  features  lead  us  back  to  what  the  Ger- 
mans call  the  "ur-ivelt"  —  to  the  elder  hills  and  plains,  the 
shepherds,  and  the  period  when  men  came  near  God  in  the 
fresh  youth  of  the  world.  A  recent  writer  in  the  Edin- 
burgh Review  (June,  1868)  says,  "A  knowledge  of  Greek 


§  34.      INTELLECTUAL   CULTURE.  443 

is  considered  absolutely  necessary  for  the  clergy ;  but,  in 
the  present  state  of  theological  controversy,  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  Hebrew  is  even  more  necessary.  On  almost 
every  disputed  point  of  biblical  criticism,  the  man  who  is 
not  a  Hebrew  scholar  is  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  the  man 
who  is,"  The  absolute  need  of  the  study  of  Greek,  we 
surely  need  not  discuss.  The  knowledge  of  Greek  which 
most  educated  ministers  possess,  not  being  kept  up  to  the 
critical  standard,  is  insufficient  for  original  research,  and  is 
apt  to  break  down  at  the  decisive  point.  In  difficult  and 
doubtful  passages,  it  is  only  the  man  who  is  profoundly 
acquainted  with  the  idioms  of  classic  and  of  Hellenic  Greek 
who  is  of  any  value  or  authority.  Bradford  Homer,  who 
died  young,  made  Demosthenes'  "Oration  on  the  Crown" 
his  constant  study,  not  only  to  help  him  in  his  style,  but  in 
his  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures.  The  study  of  Plato, 
in  its  moral  uses  to  a  minister,  as  a  standard  of  compari- 
son in  philosophical  and  Christian  ethics,  is,  perhaps,  of 
more  benefit  than  even  in  its  philological  and  strictly  scholar- 
ly uses.  We  will  not  dwell  upon  the  study  of  Latin,  which 
is  not  only  the  language  of  Cicero  and  Seneca,  but  of  the 
writings  of  the  Latin  fathers,  and  also  of  Calvin  and  the 
German  reformers,  of  Turretin,  Grotius,  and  the  standard 
Latin  commentators. 

Let  us  not  be  understood  as  saying  that  classical  attain- 
ments are  absolutely  essential  to  a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ, 
but  that  they  are  highly  useful.  Greek  may  be,  indeed,  in 
the  old  world,  a  sure  road  to  a  bishopric;  but  there  are 
ministers  of  the  gospel  who  cannot  read  New  Testament 
Greek,  and  who  are  3'et  true  bishops  and  shepherds  of 
souls,  and  eminently  useful  preachers,  though  perhaps  none 
more  than  they  grieve  over  their  want  of  sound  learning. 

The  importance  of  the  knowledge  of  German,  while 
often  regarded  in  an  extravagant  light,  is  doubtless  great ; 
and,  rich  as  is  the  German  literature,  the  language  is  chiefly 
valuable   to   a   minister    as   the    language   of   philological 


444  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

science,  of  true  learniug,  which,  it  milst  be  confessed,  is 
principally,  in  our  day,  to  be  found  in  the  German ;  yet  let 
the  preacher  beware  of  becoming  Germanized  in  his  thought 
or  his  style;  if  so,  farewell  to  his  usefulness  in  the  pulpit; 
but  let  him  keep  his  German  for  the  study,  and  his  English 
for  the  pulpit. 

One  is  apt  to  be  discouraged  in  regarding  the  scholarly 
requirements  of  his  profession  thus  en  masse;  but  if  one 
views  it  in  a  common-sense,  practical  way,  this  discourage- 
ment vanishes.  Let  it  be  supposed  that  a  minister  is 
already,  to  some  extent,  an  educated  man,  at  least  profes- 
sionally ;  he  has  thus  made  a  beginning  of  the  study  of 
theology  ;  he  knows  already  something  of  the  bounds  and 
limits  of  that  great  science,  of  its  history  and  literature ; 
he  is  also  more  or  less  familiar  with  Latin,  Greek,  and 
Hebrew  ;  he  may  have  made  some  little  progress  in  Ger- 
man :  now,  all  that  is  to  be  done  (and  this  is  the  way  to 
true  scholarly  culture)  is,  to  keep  up  these  studies  faith- 
fully, and  not  to  suffer  himself  to  lose  the  ground  already 
gained ;  and  he  need  not  become  a  mere  scholar  in  the 
process,  or  lose  the  fire  of  action,  or  interfere  with  the 
more  hnportant  duties  of  the  ministry. 

Without  speaking  further  of  those  studies  in  metaphysics, 
philosopJiy ,  Jiistory,  natural  science,  and  English  literature, 
which  are  required  to  build  up  a  broad  intellectual  culture, 
attained  by  few,  and  perhaps  unattainable  except  by  a  few, 
yet  when  vivified  by  faith,  presenting  a  noble  type  of  the 
Christian  scholar,  let  us  now  look  at,  — 

3.  The  method  of  study. 

Jonathan  Edwards  speaks  of  himself  thus  :  "  My  method 
of  study,  from  my  first  beginning  the  work  of  the  ministry, 
has  been  very  much  by  %oriting ;  applying  myself,  in  this 
way,  to  improve  every  important  hint;  pursuing  the  clew 
to  my, utmost  when  anything  in  reading,  meditation,  or 
conversation,  has  been  suggested  to  ni}'^  mind  that  seemed 
to  promise  light  on  any  weighty  point ;  thus  penning  what 


§  34.      INTELLECTUAL   CULTURE.  445 

appeared  to  me  my  best  thoughts,  on  inmimerable  subjects, 
for  my  own  benefit.  The  longer  I  prosecute  my  studies  in 
this  method,  the  more  habitual  it  becomes,  and  the  more 
pleasant  and  profitable  I  find  it."  ^ 

Samuel  Hopkins  says  of  himself,  ''  I  have  been  able  to 
study  fourteen  hours  in  a  day,  generally  rising  at  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  or  between  four  and  five,  especially 
in  the  winter  season." 

The  simple  diet  and  equable  habits,  as  well  as  giant  frame 
and  giant  will,  of  this  New  England  theologian,  enabled  him 
to  do  this  ;  but  Christian  pastors  of  this  day  cannot  be  the 
close  in-door  students  that  ministers  once  were  :  their  pure- 
ly pastoral  duties  have,  happily,  increased,  and  they  work 
more  in  the  society  of  living  men  and  living  interests  than 
of  books. 

Dr.  Emmons  (Park's  Memoir,  p.  71)  says,  "I  made  a 
practice  of  paying  my  principal  attention  to  hut  one  subject 
at  a  time.  This  had  a  happy  tendency  to  engage  all  the 
powers  of  the  mind,  and  especially  to  set  invention  at 
work,  which  is  a  faculty  very  necessary  to  investigate  truth, 
and  which  nothing  but  necessity  or  a  firm  resolution  will 
call  into  exercise.  It  is  much  easier  to  read,  to  hear,  to 
converse,  than  to  investigate;  which  requires  the  tvhole 
attention  of  the  mind  to  be  steadily  fixed  upon  one  subject. 
Reading  and  conversing  upon  a  subject  will  never  make  a 
master  of  if,  without  close  and  steady  thinking,  and  a  fiiir 
and  full  decision.  And  no  man  can  make  a  fair  and  full 
decision  upon  any  abstract  or  intricate  point  until  he  has 
thoroughly  examined  it  on  all  sides,  and  ftiirly  balanced  the 
princip'al  arguments  for  and  against  it.  Hence  I  perceived 
the  importance  of  attending  to  but  one  subject  at  a  time, 
and  of  not  leaving  that  subject  before  I  came  to  a  satisfac- 
tory and  final  decision."  This  was  Dr.  Emmons'  golden 
rule.     He  had  a  large  idea  of  ministerial  mental  culture. 


'  Life,  Lon.  ed.,  p.  216. 

38 


446  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

He  says  (p.  72),  "I  accustomed  mj'self  to  attend  to  all  sub- 
jects which  appeared  to  be  naturally  connected  with  divin- 
ity, and  calculated  to  qualify  me  for  the  work  of  the 
ministry.  That  all  the  arts  and  sciences  bear  some  relation 
to  each  other,  was  long  ago  observed  by  Cicero,  and  has 
ever  since  been  found  to  be  true  by  all  who  have  read  and 
studied  upon  an  extended  scale.  It  is  extremely  difficult  to 
gain  a  close  understanding  of  natural  and  revealed  reli- 
gion without  a  considerable  degree  of-  general  knowledge. 
The  more  I  attended  to  theology,  the  more  I  was  convinced 
of  the  importance  of  acquainting  myself  with  history, 
ethics,  metaphysics,  and  civil  polity." 

Again,  he  says  (p.  82),  "Let  divinity  be  your  supreme 
study,  with  an  eye  to  w'hich  let  all  your  other  reading, 
study,  conversation,   and  remarks  be  directed." 

Again  (p.  82),  "Begin  the  study  of  divinity  at  the  root, 
and  not  at  the  branches :  that  is  to  say,  begin  at  the  first 
principles  of  theology,  which  are  few  and  plain,  and  after- 
wards trace  them  out  in  their  various  consequences." 

And  still  again  (p.  82),  "Follow  not  too  strictly  the 
path  of  any  particular  divine  or  divines  :  for  hy  folloicing 
you  will  never  overtake  them;  but  endeavor,  if  possible, 
to  find  out  some  new,  nearer,  and  easier  way  by  which  you 
may  get  before  them,  and  really  add  some  pittance  to  the 
common  stock  of  theological  knowledge." 

Some  of  his  general  observations  upon  study  -and  reading 
are  admirable,  and  worthy  of  being  kept  in  constant  re- 
membrance. "  Steadi/,  jpatient,  j^^rsevering  thinking  will 
generally  surmount  every  obstacle  in  the  search  of  truth." 
"In  reading  authors,  aim  more  at  possessing  yourselves 
with  their  general  scheme  and  principal  arguments  than 
with  particular  expressions  and  incidental  sentiments ;  and 
while  you  labor  to  retain  their  ideas,  labor  to  forget  their 
words,  which,  if  retained,  will  tend  to  prevent  your  making 
their  idea  your  own."  He  was  accustomed  to  say,  "Never 
despair  of  a  student  who  has  one  clear  idea." 


§  34.      INTELLECTUAL  CULTURE.  447 

The  peculiarity  of  Bela  B.  Edwards'  mind  and  scholar- 
ship was  in  what  the  Greeks  called  ^xqISeux,  or  exactness; 
critical  precision  in  his  method  of  study,  going  on  slowly, 
but  surely,  to  the  mastering  of  ten  languages,  and  to  the 
reading  of  Hebrew  as  one  would  read  English ;  his  learn- 
ing meanwhile  not  extinguishing  his  imagination,  taste,  or 
piety. 

JDr.  Ohahners,  even  in  the  most  active  portion  of  his 
life,  was  able  to  secure  daily,  on  an  average,  five  hours  of 
study.  His  biographer  said  of  him,  "His  strength  lay  iu 
his  indomitable  resolution  to  master  whatever  he  had  under- 
taken to  do."  There  was  nothing  spurious  in  his  fame  ;  it 
was  the  result  of  severe  labor  and  thought.  Chalmers  said 
of  himself  that  "the  mpre  labor  he  put  in  a  sermon,  the 
more  effective  he  always  found  it  to  be."  He  believed  in 
hard  study,  and  quoted  a  saj'ing  of  Dr.  Johnson,  when 
asked  if  a  man  should  wait  for  an  inspiration  before  he 
wrote  —  "No,  sir;  he  should  sit  down  doggedly." 

Dr.  Wayland  says  very  much  the  same  thing  about  him- 
self— -that  "whatever  he  had  accomplished  in  the  world  had 
been  done  by  days'  works." 

F.  W,  RohertsorCs  biography  affords  many  hints  of  the 
methods  in  which  his  scholarly  culture,  that  gave  such  depth, 
and  such  nobility  of  form,  to  everything  he  wrote,  was 
obtained.  He  was  an  indefatigable  worker.  He  studied 
German  by  making  written  translations  of  the  best  German 
authors.  He  said  of  himself,  "I  read  hard  or  not  at  all  — 
never  skimming,  never  turning  aside  to  many  inviting 
books ;  and  Plato,  Aristotle,  Butler,  Thucj^dides,  Jonathan 
Edwards,  have  passed  like  the  iron  atoms  of  the  blood  into 
my  mental  constitution."  In  the  conflicts  of  the  day  upon 
the  inspiration  and  canon  of  the  Scriptures,  he  felt  the  need 
of  an  accurate  and  ample  knowledge  of  the  Bible.  His 
biographer  says  of  him,  "It  was  his  habit,  when  dressing 
in  the  morning,  to  commit  to  memory  daily  a  certain  num- 
ber of  verses  of  the  New  Testament.     In  this  way,  before 


448  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

leaving  the  iini/ersity,  he  had  gone  twice  over  the  English 
version,  and  once  and  a  half  throngh  the  Greek.  With  his 
eminent  power  of  arrangement,  he  mentally  combined  and 
recombined  all  the  prominent  tex,ts  under  fixed  heads  of 
subjects.  He  said,  long  afterwards,  to  a  friend,  that,  owing 
to  this  practice,  no  sooner  was  an}''  Christian  doctrine  or 
duty  mentioned  in  conversation,  or  suggested  to  him  by 
what  he  was  writing,  than  all  the  passages  bearing  on  the 
point  seemed  to  array  themselves  in  order  before  him."^ 
His  idea  of  study  was  to  have  some  plan,  even  if  a  poor 
one,  which  prevented  discursiveness  —  in  his  own  words, 
"  the  steady  habit  of  looking  forward  to  a  distant  end, 
unalterably  working  on  until  he  had  attained  it  —  the  habit, 
in  fact,  of  never  beginning  anything  which  is  not  to  be 
finished." 

A  few  plain,  practical  suggestions  will  conclude  this  par- 
ticular theme.  (1.)  Systematize  time.  The  economy  of  time 
is  a  golden  secret.  Many  men  of  frail  and  even  diseased 
physical  organization  have  accomplished  wonders  by  carry- 
ing out  a  regular  plan  of  study,  and  making  all  things  bend 
to  it.  It  is  well  for  one's  people  to  get  the  idea  that  the 
morning  is  sacred  to  study,  and  not  to  be  broken  in  upon, 
excepting  in  cases  of  necessity.  Many  a  noble  mind  has 
been  prostrated  by  midnight  study ;  and  sleep  is  quite  as 
essential  to  the  student  as  to  the  day  laborer.  No  man, 
excepting  at  ci'itical  times,  when  an  extraordinary  effort  is 
called  for,  is  justified  in  violating  the  plain  laws  of  health 
in  his  studies.  System  and  industry  should  make  up  for  the 
necessity  of  injuriously  protracted  labor.  Besides  a  gen- 
eral plan  of  study,  the  pastor  may  economize  his  time  by 
devoting  certain  portions  of  every  day  to  some  particular 
study  or  pursuit.  Let  half  an  hour  each  day,  for  instance, 
be  given  to  Greek,  and  it  is  wonderful  how  much  a  mau 
may  accomplish  by  this  daily  half  hour  in  a  year.    These 

*  Robertson's  Life,  vol.  i.  p.  18. 


§  34.       INTELLECTUAL   CULTURE.  449 

fragments  of  time  are  to  be  carefully  gathered  up.  The 
motto  of  an  Italian  scholar  was,  "  Time  is  my  estate."  (2.) 
Seek  concentration  in  study.  The  German  writer  John 
George  Hamauu  had  a  favorite  idea,  which  he  expresses  in 
many  Avays,  that  "  whatever  a  man  undertakes  to  do, 
whether  it  be  a  s^reat  or  small  work,  he  should  ijive  the 
entire  energies  of  his  mind  to  it,  and  there  should  be 
no  partial  works."  This  is  that  principle  of  thoroughness 
which  one  is  so  long  in  learning,  but  which  alone  can  make 
a  scholar.  Thoreau  says,  "  If  we  drive  a  nail,  it  should  bo 
done  thoroughly."  Concentration  is  the  law  of  all  mental 
jjrogress  :  from  one  point,  clearly  understood,  the  area  of 
related  knowledge  around  increases — slowly  at  first,  then 
more  rapidly ;  and  this  ability  of  concentrated  thought  is 
the  supreme  mental  achievement,  which  once  acquired,  so 
far  as  the  intellectual  part  of  his  profession  is  concerned, 
the  minister  is  prepared  for  his  work.  It  is  not  merely 
seeming  to  be  a  great  worker,  but  it  is  fixing  the  mind  with 
a  determined  attention  upon  one  subject,  and  holding  it 
there.  (3.)  When  one  ivories,  let  him  work;  when  one 
plays^  let  him  play.  In  the  process  of  study,  the  nervous 
system  is  drawn  upon  to  supply  stimulus  and  activity  to  the 
brain;  when,  therefore,  one  Avishes  to  recreate  and  refresh 
his  mind,  let  him  not  blend  the  intellectual  with  the  physi- 
cal exercise  ;  let  him  not  take  a  Greek  classic  to  walk  with 
him,  for,  although  he  may  and  must  carry  around  his  sermon 
in  his  head  with  him,  yet  he  should  do  the  hard  fhinking  in 
his  study,  and  leave  nature  some  free  play  and  liberty. 
The  German  student  devotes  a  small  portion  of  the  day  to 
entire  relaxation,  to  genuine  play;  and  that  is  one  reason 
why  he  can  achieve  such  incredible  results  in  the  way  of 
study.  (4.)  Employ  proper  helps.  The  habit  of  writing 
while  studying  was,  we  have  seen,  the  method  of  the  elder 
Edwards ;  and  it  is  said  by  some.  Never  read  or  study  with- 
out the  pen  in  hand.  There  is,  however,  much  difference 
of  opinion  here ;  for  what  one  gains  by  note-books,  he  is 


450  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

apt  to  lose  in  mental  power  and  tenacity  ;  and  it  is  better  to 
have  the  thought  wrought  into  the  mind  by  rejflection  —  by 
the  "afterthought "  —  than  to  have  it  never  so  well  classified 
and  laid  away  in  a  book.  At  all  events,  the  student  must, 
in  some  way,  gather  up  and  save  what  he  acquires ;  and 
there  can  be  no  extended  investigation,  or  nothing  which 
can  be  called  "  learning,"  without  this.  Dr.  Channing 
studied  pen  in  hand,  filling  the  book  he  was  reading  with 
folded  sheets  of  paper,  on  which  notes  were  rapidly  writ- 
ten, "rarely  quotations,  but  chiefly  questions  and  answers, 
qualifications,  condensed  statements,  germs"  of  interesting 
views;  and  when  the  volume  was  finished,  they  were  care- 
fully selected,  and,  under  distinct  heads,  were  placed  among 
other  papers  in  a  secretary."  Any  process,  in  fact,  which 
enables  one  to  preserve  what  he  gains  by  reading  and  study, 
is  the  chief  thing ;  and  men  greatly  difi"er  in  their  mental 
habits.  One  may  write  down  a  passage  or  thought  of  an 
author,  and  then,  from  some  aversion  or  infirmity,  never 
look  at  the  writing  again ;  while  another  man  cannot  re- 
member at  all,  without  going  through  some  such  mechanical 
process  of  transcription  and  revision.  Dr.  Emmons'  plan, 
to  ftisten  the  idea  or  thought  in  one's  mind  by  dwelling 
upon  it  and  forgetting  the  words,  can  at  least  injure  no 
one.  A  strong  desire,  an  excitation  and  intense  want 
of  the  mind,  accompanied  by  a  determinate  effort  of  the 
will  to  make  the  thought  one's  own,  is,  after  all,  the  best 
way  to  impress  a  truth  on  the  mind. 

A  minister's  library  is  generally  the  index  of  his  scholarly 
progress,  though  not  always  so ;  for  he  may  be  so  cramped 
in  means  as  not  to  be  able  to  surround  himself  with  books, 
or  he  may  pile  up  learned  books  with  a  good  intention  to 
possess  himself  of  their  contents,  without  having  the  reso- 
lution or  the  ability  to  do  so.  George  Herbert  says, 
"  The  country  parson's  lil^rary  is  a  holy  life." 


§35.      MORAL   CULTUEE.  451 


§  35.     Moral  Culture. 

Much  that  surrounds  the  name  of  a  minister,  and  gives  it 
the  halo  of  sanctity,  belongs  to  the  office  more  than  to  the 
man;  but  character,  is  something  essentially  personal,  be- 
longing to  a  man's  independent  being,  and  it  is  built  up 
through  the  voluntary  working  of  the  formative  moral  law, 
whatever  it  may  be,  true  or  false,  in  the  soul.  It  is  the 
development  of  the  inward  life,  or  the  growth  of  a  sub- 
jective principle,  which  is  strengthened  by  all  outward 
means,  nutriment  and  free  activity.  A  perfect  and 
thoroughly  furnished  minister  is  not  made  by  the  mere 
laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the  presbytery,  or  by  installation 
into  the  pastorate ;  but  the  product  of  a  right  ministerial 
character  is  a  gradual  process,  and  is  the  fruit  of  daily 
habits  of  thought  and  action.  And  let  me  mention  a  few  of 
these  elements  of  self-culture  which  enter  into  the  formation 
of  a  true  and  noble  ministerial  character. 

(a.)    The  cultivation  of  habits  of  active  goodness. 

A  man  may  heap  up  sacred  learning,  but  if  he  fails  to  make 
a  practical  use  of  it  for  his  increase  in  piety,  and  for  the  good 
of  others,  it  is  a  talent  buried.  Melanchthon,  scholar  as  he 
was,  said,  in  reference  to  his  theological  studies,  ^'Ego 
mihi  conscius  sum,  nunquam  aliam  ob  causam  tractavisse 
theologiam,  nisi  ut  me  ijpsum  emendarem."  Legh  Rich- 
mond affirmed  that  he  gained  his  greatest  wisdom  and 
highest  lessons  in  piety  in  the  cottages  of  the  poor ;  and  in 
like  manner  Dr.  Arnold  recommended  prayer  and  visiting 
the  poor  as  the  antidote  to  decline  in  spirituality.  "Exer- 
cise thyself  [as  in  a  gymnasium]  unto  godliness^''  was  the 
apostolic  requirement ;  and  Paul  summed  up  this  ministerial 
quality  of  practical  religion  with  the  injunction,  ''Do  the 
icork  of  an  evangelist;  "  have  an  aggressive  and  missionary 
piety  which  has  its  root  in  a  deep  faith,  but  which  is  piety 
of  a  healthy  and  athletic  sort,  that  need  not  be  put  under  a 


452  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

glass  case,  and  that  can  bear  the  knocks  and  strains  of  life. 
The  nnpractical  nature  of  preaching  frequently  arises  from 
the  fact  that  ministerial  piety  is  of  a  scholastic  kind,  and 
does  not  appeal  to  all  hearts  as  something  common  and 
genuine.  It  does  not  come  down  to  what  is,  but  is  ever 
dealing  with  what  should  be;  it  does  not  grapple  with  the 
awful  stupidity  and  sin  of  men's  hearts,  and  does  not  go 
forth  from  its  intellectual  seclusion  to  study  the  broad  book 
of  humanity,  to  meet  and  mingle  with  all  kinds  of  cliaracters 
and  men.  To  do  this  requires  often  a  painful  effort,  and  a 
conscious  return  to  the  Source  of  all  strength ;  it  requires 
the  awakening  of  the  Christian  sense  which  places  things 
in  their  just  relations,  and  makes  scholarship  of  infinitely 
less  value  than  that  ''faith  luMch  icorheth  by  love,"  and  which 
strives  for  the  welfare  of  humanity.  "  Character,"  says 
Novalis,  is  "  educated  will."  This  is  the  r)  uoeiij  of  the  New 
Testament,  the  virile  moral  quality  that  makes  the  minister 
"  able  to  endure  har^dness  as  a  good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ.'" 
A  minister,  it  cannot  be  denied,  has  many  temptations  to 
become  a  pietest  or  a  sentimentalist  in  religion  ;  but  let 
him  keep  in  full  vigor  his  will  to  do  good,  his  moral  man- 
hood ;  let  him  "  add  to  his  faith  virtue,"  or  that  energic 
quality  which  enables  faith  to  carry  out  its  good  and  high 
inspirations,  which  concentrates  and  sanctifies  all  the  powers 
of  the  being  in  the  fulfilling  of  one  high  purpose.  Thus  a  min- 
ister should  become  more  than  a  man  of  words  —  more  than 
a  talker  —  more  than  a  holy  and  valorous  man  in  the  pulpit ; 
for  bow  often  it  is  that  one  thinks  he  is  a  leader  in  all  good- 
ness, that  he  is  doing  great  things  for  Christ,  when,  after  all, 
he  is  but  talkins;  or  dreaminf?  about  doinj?  them.  He  who 
is  constantly  preaching  is  too  apt  to  think  that  talking  is 
doing — that  words  are  deeds;  and  in  truth  they  may  be 
sometimes,  but  they  may  be  often  a  miserable  substitute  for 
practical  good  activity  ;  and  to  pen  high  thoughts  in  a  com- 
fortable study  is  a  thing  very  different  from  "going  about 
doing  good  "  with  the  self-sacrificing  spirit  of  Christ. 


§  35.      MORAL   CULTURE.  453 

(6.)  The  cultivation  of  the  principle  of  self-denial.  The 
ministerial  quality  of  acxxfitoavvq  is  much  spoken  of  by  the 
apostle,  hard  to  translate,  but  it  conveys  the  idea  of  that 
mental  and  moral  soundness  which  comes  from  the  principle 
of  self-control,  from  a  true  balance  of  the  mind,  it  suffers 
no  faculty  or  desire  to  obtain  undue  prominence  and  influ- 
ence, and,  above  all,  it  implies  the  conquest  of  the  fleshly 
mind.  Paul  says,  ^' I  keep  my  body  under ^  and  bring  it  into 
subjection,  lest,  having  preached  to  others,  I  myself  should  be 
a  castaway.""  The  body  or  the  soul  will  rule  ;  one  of  them 
must  be  subjugated* to  the  other  ;  and  even  after  the  spiritual 
victory  is  gained,  a  continual  watchfulness  is  needed  to  pre- 
serve that  which  is  gained;  and,  in  all  things  that  have  an 
evil  tendency,  the  only  safe  rule  is,  to  resist  the  beginnings 
of  evil.  It  is  said  of  Bishop  Heber  that  he  would  not  con- 
tinue to  read  anything  which  he  found  had  an  influence 
to  demoralize  the  thoughts ;  and  though  this  may  indicate 
a  sense  of  weakness,  it  shows  also  the  extreme  watchful- 
ness which  this  good  servant  of  Christ  kept  over  himself. 
Even  the  Mohammedans  have  a  proverb,  that  it  is  a  sign 
that  a  man  has  reached  his  maturity  when  he  applies  all  his 
powers  to  please  God,  and  no  longer  seeks  the  gratification 
of  his  lower  nature. 

In  what  has  been  said  upon  this  subject  it  is  not  meant 
that  the  body  should  be  neglected  or  despised,  for  so  large 
a  department  of  the  mental  nature,  the  tastes,  sensibilities, 
and  aflections,  are  closely  allied  to  the  physical  nature, 
and  the  body  should  receive  a  genial  and  generous  treat- 
ment ;  it  should  be  kept  under,  but  at  the  same  time  it 
should  be  kept  healtby,  strong,  and  serviceable ;  it  should 
not  be  starved  by  asceticism,  nor  enfeebled  by  an  injudicious 
system  of  labor.  'Depend  upon  it,  good  health,  and  even  the 
expression  of  a  sound  physical  organism,  and  of  a  happy 
spirit,  in  the  outward  appearance,  are  moral  powers  in  the 
work  of  the  ministry.  The  nervous  and  "  preternatural  ex- 
citement," the  total  tyranny  of  the  mind  over  the  body, 


454  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

which  characterized  the  life  of  F.  W.  Robertson,  was  doubt- 
less one  of  the  causes  of  the  sadness  of  his  life,  and  of  its 
premature  ending.  The  beginnings  of  his  ministerial  life 
were  marked  by  bodily  austerity,  which  wore  him  out 
soon,  and  obstructed  the  development  of  a  natural,  genial, 
cheerful  piety.  This  was  changed  and  lamented  over  after- 
ward, when  it  was  too  late,  and  when  he  had  exhausted 
himself  by  his  system  of  mental  self-inspection  and  of  bodily 
asceticism. 

The  principle  of  self-denial  is  the  foundation  of  all  Chris- 
tian nobleness  and  power.  When  the  people  once  clearly 
perceive  that  there  is  in  their  minister  that  spirit  which  can 
and  will  give  up  all  things,  even  life  itself,  for  the  gospel's 
sake,  although  he  may  not  be  called  upon  to  do  this,  except 
in  the  exercise  of  that  daily  cross-bearing  which  the  Master 
enjoins,  he  becomes  their  strong  tower;  for  he  who  yields 
his  own  will,  and  enters  into  God's  will,  has  found  the 
source  of  strenjjth.  One  little  act  of  self-sacrifice  on  the 
part  of  a  pastor  will  gain  for  him  far  too  great  praise  from 
his  people ;  and  the  danger  is,  that  he  may  repeat  the  act 
merely  for  the  sake  of  the  praise  and  power  it  brings  him. 

(c.)  The  cultivation  of  steadiness  of  character.  This  does 
not  mean  a  repression,  or  an  ironing  down  of  the  spontaneous- 
ness  of  the  nature,  which  produces  an  artificial  rigidness  ;  but 
a  restraint  put  upon  false  and  hasty  impulses,  or  a  habit  of  act- 
ing from  principle  rather  than  from  sheer  impulse.  A  stabili- 
ty of  spirit  which  is  not  easily  thrown  off  its  balance,  a  control 
of  the  emotions  without  an  unnatural  restraining  of  them,  a 
repose  and  solidity  of  character  which  are  above  the  reach 
of  ordinary  excitement,  and  above  the  show  of  petty  re- 
sentment at  petty  insults,  — these,  doubtless,  enter  into  the 
apostolic  conception  of  '"^  gravity."  There  should  be  some- 
thinsr  of  the  "rock  Peter  "  in  the  minister  of  Christ  —  a  calm 
strength,  on  which  others  can  lean.  lie  should  strive  to  be 
the  same  man  at  all  times,  for  he  who  is  set  to  govern  the 
church  of  God  must  first  learn  to  govern  himself.     "The 


§  35.      MORAL   CULTURE.  455 

Christian  minister  should  not  be  found  frequently  changing 
his  plans  and  playing  experiments  in  his  parish,  taking  up  a 
cause  with  warmth  to-day,  and  then  abandoning  it  to-mor- 
row ;  but  there  should  be  a  consistent  regularity,  a  calm 
uniformity,  in  his  bearing.  This  Avill  inspire  confidence,  and 
make  men  feel  that  he  is  one  on  whom  they  can  reckon."^ 

This  "gravity"  should  not  become  an  artificial  solemnity. 
Quaint  Thomas  Fuller  says  of  the  minister,  that  he  should 
not  be  "too  austere  and  retired,  which  is  laid  to  the  charge 
of  good  Mr.  Hooper,  the  martyr,  that  his  rigidness  fright- 
ened the  people  from  consulting  with  him.  'Let  your 
light,'  saith  Christ, '  shine  before  men  ; '  whereas  over-reserv- 
edness  makes  the  brightest  virtue  burn  dim.  Especially 
he  detesteth  affected  gravity  (which  is  rather  on  men  than, 
in  them),  whereby  some  belie  their  register-book,  antedate 
their  age  to  seem  far  older  than  they  are,  and  plait  and  set 
their  brows  in  an  aflected  sadness."  There  should  b© 
in  the  minister  of  Christ  the  simple  dignity  of  one  who 
stands  upon  and  proclaims  eternal  truth,  who  by  his  very 
looks  teaches  truth,  trust,  a  serene  and  divine  elevation  of 
purpose. 

(d.)  The  cultivation  of  a  cheerful  spirit.  He  who  is  to  be 
the  sustainer  and  consoler  of  others,  who  stands  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  divine  Comforter,  should  show  that  there  are 
good  cheer  and  peace  in  his  own  heart ;  for  if  one  falls  into 
a  desponding  mood,  and  supposes  that  his  preaching  does 
no  good,  or  that  his  presence  is  distasteful  to  his  people,  or 
that  he  is  unfitted  for  the  work  of  the  ministry  —  this  is  just 
the  opposite  of  that  spirit  "  of  power,  of  love,  of  a  sound 
mind  "  which  the  apostle  sets  forth  and  enjoins.  A  pastor 
should  be  accessible  and  sociable,  and  should  not  even  lose 
his  relish  for  those  pleasures  and  enjoyments  that  promote 
kindly  wit  and  cheerfulness.  He  should  not  forget  how  to 
laugh ;  and  it  is  wonderful  how  a  good,  honest  laugh  dissi- 
pates spleen,  and  makes  the  blood  circulate  healthily,  while 

'  Oxenden. 


456  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

an  unsmiling  and  over-anxious  minister  wearies  his  people, 
as  if  they  had  a  spectre  always  before  them.  One  should 
feel  earnestly  his  responsibilities,  and  not  have  a  superficial 
light-heartedness  amid  great  duties  and  cares  ;  but  he  should 
strive  to  roll  off  his  cares  upon  God,  and  maintain  a  bright, 
cheerful  spirit ;  and  since  cheerfulness  commonly  springs 
from  love,  love  can  do  and  say  things  that  power,  and  even 
reason,  cannot.  It  is  a  great  thing,  too,  for  a  pastor  to 
establish  a  hopeful  and  cheerful  type  of  piety  among  his 
people  :  this  will  contribute  to  the  healthy  growth  of  the 
church,  and  will  keep  out  a  sickly  and  sorrowful  style  of 
religion,  which  never  flourished  in  the  good  soil  of  the  primi- 
tive church. 

(e.)  The  cultivation  of  the  qualities  of  prudence  and 
patience.  ^"Prudence "  is  nearly  equivalent  to  what  is  fre- 
quently alluded  to  in  the  New  Testament  as  "  wisdom," — 
*'  warning  and  teaching  every  ma,n  in. all  wisdom" — "  wise  to 
win  soids,"  —  and  is  a  divine  and  comprehensive  grace,  that 
leads  into  all  wise  action  as  well  as  wise  speech.  It  is,  as 
Dr.  Johnson  says,  "  wisdom  applied  to  practice."  Prudence, 
in  some  respects,  is  another  word  for  tact,  or  a  knowledge 
of  human  nature,  which,  surely,  they  who  are  to  be  fishers 
of  men  should  possess  —  a  sagacious  insight  into  character 
and  motives,  without  cunning,  which  is  sagacity  springing 
from  insincerity,  and  whose  end  is  to  deceive.  Prudence 
often  holds  in  reserve  one's  act  or  opinion,  and  does  not 
the  foolish  thing,  but  does  the  wise  thing.  It  does  not 
seize  upon  every  new  thing  in  philosophy  and  morals, 
and  every  new  scheme  of  reform  that  ofi^ers  itself,  simply 
because  it  is  new ;  it  does  not  subscribe  to  every  plausible 
but  shallow  project,  and  thus  help  often  to  deceive  and 
cheat  the  whole  community.  It  is  not  "zeal  without  knowl- 
edge." It  avoids  even  "the  appearance  of  evil,"  for  ''the 
ministry  must  not  be  blamed.''' 

This  prudence  should  not  run  into  over-cautiousness,  for 
there  should  always  be  more  of  the  lion  than  the  fox  in  the 


§  35.      MORAL   CULTURE.  457 

Christian  minister ;  in  truth,  ahiiost  anything  in  the  way  of 
rashness  is  preferable  to  a  managing  minister,  for  he  gen- 
erally manages  to  get  himself  distrusted  and  despised. 

The  quality  of  patience  was  the  crowning  quality  of  our 
Saviour's  character,  and  we  should  pray  to  be  "  led  into 
the  patience  of  Christ."  Paul,  in  2  Tim.  3  :  24,  says  that 
the  servant  of  Christ  must  be  "patient"  [iivEkixuxov),  endur- 
ing, or,  literally,  bearing  up  under,  evil.  The  want  of  im- 
mediate success  in  his  best  plans,  the  unconquerable  apathy 
or  obstinacy  of  church  members,  careless  and  disparaging 
remarks,  schemes  of  intriguing  and  mischievous  men,  the 
desertion  of  supposed  friends,  the  trials  arising  from  his 
own  negligences,  imperfections,  and  sins,  and  especially  the 
unawakened  condition  of  the  impenitent  of  his  congrega- 
tion, —  these  are  painful  ordeals  of  patience.  There  should, 
therefore,  be  infinitely  more  in  a  pastor's  spiritual  life  than 
appears  in  his  outward  life  —  an  interior  depth  of  union 
with  God,  which  no  event  can  destroy  or  disturb.  This 
inward  purity  and  strength  of  soul  form  a  coil  within  him  of 
immeasurable  rebound.  It  is  this  which  gives  his  word  a 
penetrating  force,  driving  it  home  to  the  heart  and  con- 
science. This  reserved  power,  this  patient  strength,  hid  in 
God,  and  called  forth  only  in  time  of  real  trial,  prove  a 
man  to  be  of  the  material  that  a  minister  of  Christ  should  be 
made  of.     He  is  a  man  who  cannot  be  conquered. 

(/".)  The  cultivation  of  a  spirit  of  kindness.  Vinet  says 
of  the  minister,  "He  is  among  men  the  representation  of  a 
thought  of  mercy,  and  he  represents  it  by  making  it  incar- 
nate in  his  own  life.  To  succor  is  the  minister's  life."  How 
much  power  there  is  even  in  a  kind  manner  !  It  is  like  the 
sun  in  spring  on  the  snow  and  ice  of  men's  hearts.  To 
carry  a  kind  and  gentle  aspect  toward  little  children,  old 
people,  young  men,  business  men,  poor  people,  mothers, 
servants,  high  and  low,  is  a  constant  mild  agency  promo- 
tive of  ministerial  influence  and  of  the  good  ends  it  is 
aiming  at.  Paul  said  to  the  Thessaloniaus,  ">Fe  were  gentle 
39 


458  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

among  you:  as  a  nurse  cherished  her  children,  so  being  affec- 
tionalebj  desirous  of  you,  ive  were  willing  to  have  imparted 
unto  you,  not  the  gospel  of  God  only,  but  our  own  souls,  be- 
cause ye  loere  dear  unto  us." 

A  recent  French  Roman  Ciitholic  author,  who  seems  to 
write  with  a  true  evangelic  instinct  as  regards  the  pastoral 
work,  remarks,  "  Men  must  be  much  loved  in  order  that  they 
may  be  well  instructed.  Whatever  they  may  be,  be  they  ever 
so  guilty,  or  indiflcrent,  or  ungrateful,  or  however  deeply 
sunk  in  crime,  before  all  and  above  all,  they  must  be  loved."  ^ 
He  says  again,  "The  question  is  not  to  ascertain  what  they  are 
worth,  but  to  save  thom,  such  as  they  are.  Our  age  is  a  great 
prodigal  son  ;  let  us  help  it  to  return  to  the  paternal  home. 
Now  is  the  time  to  recall  the  admirable  words  of  Fenelon  — 
'O  ye  pastors,  put  away  from  you  all  narrowness  of  heart. 
Enlarge,  enlarge  your  compassion.  You  know  nothing  if 
you  know  merely  how  to  command,  to  reprove,  to  correct, 
to  expound  the  letter  of  the  law.  Be  fathers  —  yet  that  is 
not  enough  —  be  as  mothers.'"^  And  once  more  he  says, 
"  It  is  not  by  essays  of  reasoning,  any  more  than  by  the 
sword,  that  the  moral  world  is  to  be  swayed.  A  little 
knowledge,  much  sound  sense,  and  much  more  heart,  —  that 
is  what  is  requisite  to  raise  the  great  mass,  the  people,  and  to 
cleanse  and  purify  them.  To  be  able  to  reason  is  human,  very 
human  ;  and  one  who  is  a  man,  and  nothing  more,  may  pos- 
sess that  ability  as  well  as  you,  perhaps  in  a  higher  degree. 
But  to  lose,  to  devote  one's  life,  to  sacrifice  self,  is  some- 
thing unearthly,  divine,  possessing  a  magic  power.  Self- 
devotion,  moreover,  is  the  only  argument  against  which 
human  malevolence  can  find  no  answer."  ^  He  quotes  St. 
Augustine's  language  —  "Love  first,  and  then  you  may  do 
what  you  choose." 

>  The  Clergy  and  the  Pulpit.    MuUois,  p.  15. 
*  Idem,  p.  17.  '•'  Idem,  p.  29. 


PART    THIRD. 

THE  PASTOR  IN  HIS  RELATIONS  TO  SOCIETY. 


§  36.     Domestic  and  Social  Kelations. 

(1.)  The  pastor  in  his  family.  1  Tim.  3:  1-5,  "^ 
bishop,  then,  must  be  blameless,  the  husband  of  one  wife, 
vigilant,  sobar,  of  good  behavior,  given  to  hospitality,  apt 
to  teach;  not  given  to  wine,  no  striker,  not  greedy  of  filthy 
lucre, hut  patient,  not  a  brawler,  not  covetous;  one  that  rideth 
well  his  own  house,  having  his  children  in  subjection  with 
all  gravity.  (For  if  a  man  hnoiv  not  how  to  ride  his  own 
house,  how  shall  he  take  care  of  the  church  of  God?)  " 

The  Roman  Catholic  author  from  whom  we  quoted  in  the 
last  lecture  remarks,  "Be  it  ours,  therefore,  to  love  the  peo- 
ple. Is  it  not  to  that  end  that  we  have  no  family  ties  ?  Yes,  I 
invoke  pit}^  for  the  people  ;  pity  for  their  sufferings,  their  mis- 
eries, their  prejudices,  their  deplorable  subjection  to  popular 
opinion,  their  ignorance,  their  errors.  Let  us,  at  least,  try  to 
do  them  good  —  to  save  them.  Therein  lies  our  happiness  ; 
we  shall  never  have  any  other.  All  other  sources  are  closed 
to  us ;  there  is  the  well-spring  of  the  most  delectable  joys. 
Apart  from  charity,  what  remains?  Vanity,  unprofitableness, 
bitterness,  misery,  nothingness."  These  words,  though  evi- 
dently the  words  of  a  noble  man,  have  a  sad  tone,  as  if  the 
"  bitterness  and  nothingness  "  had  been  experienced  because 
the  writer's  heart  had  been  closed,  by  the  nnscrii)tural  im- 
position of  celibacy,  to  domestic  joys  and  affections ;  and 

(459) 


460  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

the  aro-ument  itself  by  no  means  holds  good,  that  because  a 
man  has  no  wife  and  children  to  love,  he  will  more  readily 
love  the  people,  since  he  has  nothing  else  to  love.  But  he 
has  something  else  to  love  ;  that  is,  Jiimself,  or  a  phantom  of 
the  church  which  he  has  created,  and  which  is  another  name, 
in  many  instances,  for  a  sanctilied  love  of  power,  an  ambi- 
tion to  embody  in  himself  the  church's  power.  He  who 
happily  sustains  the  married  relation  is  in  tho-  best  school  on 
eailh  to  learn  unselfishness  —  the  unselfish  love  of  all.  He 
is  drawn  out  of  himself ;  he  must  think  of  others  ;  he  cannot 
be  absorbed  in  his  own  plans  ;  his  best  affections  are  con- 
stantly moved  upon,  and  they  have  no  time  to  stagnate.  In 
the  passage  quoted  from  the  pastoral  Epistles,  the  minister 
is  looked  upon  in  his  family  relations,  and  every  sentence 
of  that  weighty  apostolic  counsel  might  be  profitably  dwelt 
upon. 

"  The  husband  of  one  loifeJ"  A  minister's  wife  may, 
indeed,  make  or  mar  him ;  for  if  she  is  not  with  him  in  his 
work,  she  will  be  potent  to  draw  him  away  from  his  work. 
She  may  be  thus  his  good  or  evil  angel,  for  she  is  present  in 
his  times  of  weakness  and^depression,  and  her  influence  con- 
stantly builds  up  or  undermines  the  strength  of  his  zeal. 
De  Tocqueville  has  a  striking  passage  upon  a  wife's  influ- 
ence in  a  difterent  relation.  He  says,  "I  do  not  hesitate  to 
say  that  the  women  give  to  every  nation  a  moral  tempera- 
ment which  shows  itself  in  politics.  A  hundred  times  have 
I  seen  weak  men  show  real  public  virtue  because  they  had 
by  their  sides  women  who  supported  them,  not  by  advice 
as  to  particulars,  but  by  fortifying  their  feelings  of  duty, 
and  of  directing  their  ambition.  More  frequently,  I  must 
confess,  I  have  observed  the  domestic  influence  gradually 
transforming  a  man  natiu-ally  generous,  noble,  and  unself- 
ish, into  a  cowardly,  commonplace,  place-hunting  self- 
seeker,  thinking  of  public  business  only  as  a  means  of 
making  himself  comfortable,  and  this  simply  by  contact 
with  a  well-conducted  woman,  a  faithful  wife,  an  excellent 


§  36.       SOCIAL   RELATIONS.  461 

mother,  but  from  whose  miiid  the  graud  notion  of  public 
duty  was  entirely  absent." 

The  sympathy  of  a  true  Christian  wife  to  a  minister  in  his 
•work  is  something  more  than  common  friendship ;  it  is 
the  loving  support  of  a  heart  true  to  the  divine  Master  in 
hours  of  human  suffering  and  trial  —  in  times  when  the  spirit 
of  a  strong  man  bows  itself,  and  when  there  is  no  other 
earthly  friend  to  whom  he  would  reveal  his  mental  weak- 
ness and  anguish.  Besides,  there  is  a  department  in  the 
church,  in  whiclxthe  ministry  of  woman  is  indispensable  — 
and  that  is,  in  religious  counsel  to  those  of  their  own  sex. 
Vinet  saj^s  that  "  females  are  the  natural  confessors  of  fe- 
males." Some  pastors'  wives  have  been  "  deaconesses  "  in 
the  scriptural  sense,  the  instrumentalities  of  bringing  num- 
bers of  their  own  sex  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Saviour. 

A  true  Christian  wife  can  also  aid  her  husband  in  his 
preaching,  by  her  finer  perception  of  the  feminine  mind, 
and  by  the  suggestive  information  which  she  acquires  in 
friendly  conversation  with  others  ;  for  her  intuitions  of  char- 
acter are  often  more  penetrating  and  true  than  his  slower 
judgments.  Undoubtedly  the  first  duty  of  a  pastor's  wife  is 
to  her  own  family,  and  the  pastor  has  his  responsibility  here, 
not  to  permit  the  parish  to  command  too  much  of  her  time 
and  strength.  This  is  a  sacred  duty  that  he  owes  to  his 
own  family. 

"One  that  ruleth  ivell  his  own  house."  There  should  be  an 
organic  law  of  every  house,  as  there  is  of  every  government, 
which  shapes  its  Avhole  theory  and  character.  A  minister 
should  strive  to  make  his  own  household  subservient  to  the 
interests  of  Christ's  kingdom.  An  old  English  writer  says, 
"  A  family  is  a  small  diocese,  in  which  the  first  essays  are 
made  of  the  episcopal  and  ecclesiastical  zeal,  piety,  and  pru- 
dence." The  minister  should  endeavor  to  harmonize  his 
family  with  his  work,  and  not  to  dissociate  them  from  it ;  for 
they  are  given  him  to  help  him  in  his  office  ;  and  his  family 
should  be  the  means  of  his  greater  influence  in  the  special 
39* 


462  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

duties  of  the  ministry,  and  thus  multiply  his  own  influence. 
His  household  should  be  a  consecrated  household. 

•The  minister  should  rule  his  family,  as  God  rules  his 
family,  not  so  much  by  the  hand  of  absolute  authority 
(though  there  should  be  undisputed  authority  in  him  as  its 
earthly  head),  as  by  the  principles  of  a  just  moral  govern- 
ment, by  truth,  righteousness,  and  love.  The  New  Testa- 
ment speaks  much  of  "the  church  in  the  house,"  and  there 
should  be  a  little  church  in  every  minister's  house,  in  which 
the  spirit  of  Christ,  the  Son  of  peace,  reigns;  in  which  there 
is  an  orderly  system  in  the  daily  life  that  enthrones  God 
iu  everything.  Family  devotion,  as  Dr.  Bushnell  truly 
says,  should  be  in  harmonj^  with  the  whole  religious  life 
of  the  household,  and  not  one  disconnected  act,  as  if  it 
formed  all  the  religion  and  religious  worship  of  the  house. 
It  should  be  the  manifestation  or  expression  of  a  common 
and  constant  spiritual  life,  and  of  a  home  piety  in  which  sim- 
plicity, cheerfulness,  the  spirit  of  obedient  activity,  and  the 
spirit  of  love,  reign.  Ministers  are  sometimes  inclined  to 
be  too  loose  in  the  moral  government  of  their  families  ;  they 
excuse  themselves  on  the  plea  of  public  duties ;  but  no 
man  should  neglect  his  own  for  others',  unless  he  would 
incur  the  stern  apostolic  reproof.  There  has  been  many 
a  modern  Eli  among  ministers,  whose  zeal  iu  the  house  of 
God  could  not  prevent  the  ruin  of  their  own  families. 

"  Given  to  hospitality.'^  The  true  minister's  house,  in 
every  age  and  clime,  has  been  the  home  of  a  warm-hearted 
hospitality  and  of  an  efficient  benevolence.  It  has  set  the 
fashion  and  given  the  law  to  the  parish  in  those  respects. 
It  has  been  the  palace  of  the  poor.  That  it  should  main- 
tain this  character,  and  be  still  more  influential  in  the  pro- 
motion of  the  people's  happiness,  let  it  be  made  the  abode 
of  an  attractive  good  taste,  and  of  an  inexpensive  refine- 
ment. Let  it  admit  into  it  the  influence  of  a  chastened  cul- 
ture and  art,  and  above  all  of  the  harmonizing  power  of 
music. 


§  36.       SOCIAL    RELATIONS.  463 

Business  habits,  method  and  punctuality  in  all  matters  of 
daily  living,  also  increase  the  influence  of  the  minister,  and 
tell  upon  whatever  he  utters  in  the  pulpit.  This  is  ^^  the 
itrdnt^  anise,  and  cummin,"  which  may  not  be  neglected 
while  he  is  preaching  "  the  weightier  matter's  of  the  law." 
Above  all,  let  not  the  minister  become  encumbered  with 
debts.  Do  you  say,  How  can  he  help  it?  "VVe  answer.  He 
must  help  it ;  he  must  rather  do  anything  that  is  honest 
and  honorable  ;  for  when  once  deeply  in  debt,  the  right 
arm  of  his  usefulness  —  his  independence  —  is  paralyzed  ; 
he  cannot  sa}''  what  he  Avill,  nor  do  what  he  will ;  but  he  is 
another  man's  servant,  and  he  cannot  lose  the  consciousness 
of  it. 

Promptness  and  accuracy  in  relation  to  the  business  of  the 
church,  form  a  means  of  influence  with  others,  and  especial- 
ly with  business  men,  who  respect  the  executive  talent  in 
man  wherever  it  is  found  :  that  they  can  appreciate.  A 
minister  should  make  no  blunders  in  the  management  of 
church  business.  To  be  prompt  at  church  meetings,  care- 
ful to  attend  to  practical  engagements  connected  with  the 
management  of  church  afiairs,  or  of  any  outside  business, 
especially  of  a  pecuniary  nature,  — these  things  increase  oue's 
power  with  men,  for  they  show  character,  they  betoken 
moral  exactitude,  which  confirms  the  teachings  of  a  higher 
righteousness,  or  Tightness.  If  a  man  makes  an  error  in 
these  least  things,  the  people  will  infer,  both  scripturally 
and  rationally,  that  he  may  do  the  same  in  greater  things. 
We  mention  these  matters  as  belonging,  in  some  sense,  to  the 
domestic  character  of  a  man  ;  and  if  he  is  exact  in  these  things 
at  home,  he  will  be  apt  to  be  so  in  his  relations  to  the  church. 

There  is  one  point  in  this  subject  of  a  minister's  regula- 
tion of  his  own  household  which  is  of  profound  moment ; 
that  is,  the  responsibility  of  the  minister  for  the  spiritual 
condition  of  his  family.  It  is  strange  that  we  are  better 
able  to  carry  out  the  precepts  of  a  Christian  life  in  public, 
and  toward  strangers,  than  we  often  are  in  our  own  homes, 


464  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

and  toward  those  we  love  best.  Why  is  this?  Surely  a 
minister,  of  all  men,  should  not  keep  his  religious  graces 
for  the  public,  and  hide  them  to  his  own  family.  A  man 
cannot  be  a  saint  in  the  pulpit,  and  a  selfish,  irritable,  and 
uncomfortable  person  in  private  life.  He  may,  perhaps,  not 
mean  to  be  so ;  but  he  should  watch  against  this  tendency 
to  be  good  and  holy  occasionally  and  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world,  and  not  so  at  home  and  at  all  times.  A  minister  not 
infrequently,  we  believe,  feels  smitten  with  the  conviction 
(especially  after  preaching  in  a  strange  place)  that  he  has 
exhausted  his  powers  in  efforts  and  appeals  to  bring  souls 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  —  persons  whom  he  will  prob- 
ably never  meet  again  on  earth ;  and  what  special,  skilled, 
determined  effort  like  this  has  he  put  forth  to  save  the  souls 
of  his  own  family  ! 

A  minister's  family  is  subject,  in  a  marked  manner,  to 
public  scrutiny  and  criticism ;  and  it  is  better  to  bear  this 
criticism  good-naturedly  than  to  be  troubled  by  it. 

While  asserting  his  independence  in  regard  to  these 
domestic  matters,  yet  the  pastor  may  not  forget  that  his 
family  is  looked  upon,  in  some  sense,  as  a  model  family. 
That  should  not  only  stimulate  him  to  be  simple  and  pru- 
dent in  his  domestic  matters,  to  avoid  extravagance  in  all 
things,  and  to  shun  the  appearance  of  evil,  but  to  use  this 
fact  as  a  means  of  good  to  others,  in  order  to  elevate  his 
people  in  intelligence,  good  taste,  social  feeling,  and  benev- 
olence. Religion  in  his  home  should  be  made  a  real  thing, 
a  matter  of  daily  life,  it  should  soften  the  feelings,  raise  the 
moral  tone,  educate  the  will,  liberalize  the  character,  and  fill 
the  home  with  the  atmosphere  of  holy,  unselfish  love. 

Of  an  old  English  bishop's  house  (Bishop  Hooper, 
the  martyr),  it  is  said,  "It  was  as  if  we  entered  some 
church  or  temple.  In  every  corner  thereof  there  was  some 
smell  of  virtue,  good  example,  honest  conversation,  and 
reading  of  holy  Scripture."  Of  Alleine  it  is  said,  that  "as 
he  walked  about  the  house,  he  w^ould  make  some  spiritual 


§  36.       SOCIAL    RELATIONS.  465 

use  of  everything  that  did  occur,  and  his  lips  did  drop  like 
the  houey-comb  to  all  that  were  about  him." 

The  author  of  the  Recreations  of  a  Country  Parson, 
after  speaking  of  his  being  hindered  in  preparing  a  ser- 
mon by  the  interruptions  of  a  little  child,  says,  "My 
sermon  will  be  the  better  for  all  these  interruptions.  I 
do  not  mean  to  say  that  it  will  be  absolutely  good,  though 
it  will  be  as  good  as  I  can  make  it ;  but  it  will  be 
better  than  it  would  have  been  if  I  had  not  been  inter- 
rupted at  all.  The  Roman  Catholic  church  meant  it  well, 
but  it  was  far  mistaken  when  it  thought  to  make  a  man 
a  better  parish  priest  by  cutting  him  oflP  from  domestic 
ties,  aud  quite  emancipating  him  from  all  the  worries  of 
domestic  life.  That  might  be  the  way  to  get  men  who 
would  preach  au  unpractical  religion,  not  human  in  interest, 
not  able  to  comfort,  direct,  sustain  through  daily  cares, 
temptations,  and  sorrows.  But  for  the  preaching  which 
will  come  home  to  men's  business  and  bosoms,  which  will 
not  appear  to  ignore  those  things  Avhich  must,  of  necessity, 
occupy  the  greatest  part  of  an  ordinary  mortal's  thoughts, 
commend  to  the  preacher  who  has  learned  by  experience 
what  are  human  ties,  and  what  is  human  worry." 

(2.)    The  pastor  hi  his  general  social  intercourse. 

Christianity  favors  the  cultivation  of  the  social  prmciple ; 
and  the  Christian  pastor,  above  all  men,  cannot  withdraw 
himself  from  the  world  ;  he  cannot  be  exclusive  ;  for  he  has 
devoted  himself  to  the  welfare  of  his  fellow-men,  and  to  the 
salvation  of  the  world.  Even  as  Christ  looked  on  the  mul- 
titudes of  men,  and  had  compassion  upon  them,  so,  wherever 
men  are,  there,  like  his  Master,  he  is  to  do  them  good ;  and 
he  cannot  shut  up  the  offer  of  the  gospel  and  the  hope  of 
better  things  to  any  man,  however  low,  obscure,  and  vile  ; 
for  did  not  Christ  attend  the  feast  of  one  who  was  a  publi- 
can and  a  sinner?  We  would,  then,  advise,  (a.)  that  a  min- 
ister should  be  genuinely  social,  ivithout  conforming  to  the 


466  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

worldly  spirit  in  society.  The  character  of  a  minister 
should  combine  the  spirit  of  faithfulness  to  God  with  faith- 
fulness to  man ;  he  should  not  fail  in  his  duties  to  either. 
There  maj'  be  two  opposite  errors  in  ministerial  conduct  in 
regard  to  society  :  a  minister  may  have  so  strong  a  desire 
to  separate  himself  from  worldly  things  and  worldly  men 
as  entirely  to  lose  the  social  spirit;  or,  on  the  other  hand, 
he  may  have  so  intense  a  desire  to  smooth  the  way  for  good 
influence  among  all  men,  and  to  come  down  to  the  level  and 
sympathy  of  all,  that  he  may  not  only  thereby  lose  his 
dignity,  but  may  compromise  his  principles ;  and  he  may 
unconsciously  adopt  the  principles  of  the  world  and  of  the 
evil  there  is  in  society.  He  may  go  so  far  as  to  come  upon 
the  ground  of  doing  evil  that  good  may  come.  The  Saviour 
said  of  his  disciples,  "  They  are  not  of  the  ivorld,  even  as  I 
am  not  of  the  wo7'ld;"  yet  he  prayed  that  his  disciples  should 
not  be  taken  out  of  the  world,  but  kept  from  its  evil.  The 
middle  course  is  thus  the  true  one.  While  in  the  world, 
one  should  not  be  of  the  world  ;  but  he  should  show  that  re- 
ligion is  a  principle  strong  enough  to  live  in  the  world.  If 
the  minister  surrenders  too  much,  and  suffers  himself  to  be 
governed  by  the  same  principles  that  govern  the  world,  so 
that  he  may  have  social  intercourse  with  it,  he  gives  no  clear 
testimony  to  the  divine  spirit  of  his  Master,  neither  will  he 
be  able,  by  this  means,  to  raise  society,  but  will  himself  be 
dragged  down  by  it.  Therefore  Ave  would  give  the  counsel, 
(jb.)  that  while  the  minister  should  exhibit  a  genuine 
courtesy  to  all,  he  shoidd  have  special  attractions  for  the 
society  and  friendshij)  of  the  tme  servants  of  Christ.  Al- 
though a  minister  should  observe  the  customs  of  polite 
society,  and  may  have  friends  whom  he  loves  among  the 
decidedly  worldly  class,  yet  a  minister  should  cultivate  no 
society  where  he  is  forced  to  hide  his  principles,  or  his 
sacred  office,  and  appear  to  be  what  he  is  not. 
Another  suggestion  is,  (c.)  that,  though  not  a  man  of  the 


§  36.       SOCIAL   RELATIONS.  467 

world,  a  minister  should  he,  wherever  he  is,  a  trite  gentle- 
man. 

By  bis  profession  and  education  it  is  demanded  of  him 
that  he  should  be  a  man  of  refinement.  Anj-tbing  coarse 
in  a  minister,  even  if  his  manners  otherwise  are  of  the  plain- 
est and  simplest  character,  is  'inexpressibly  out  of  place. 
John  Wesley,  plain  and  severe  as  we  picture  him,  insisted 
upon  the  highest  style  'of  manners  as  necessary  in  the  minis- 
terial office  —  "all  the  courtesy  of  the  gentleman,  joined 
with  the  correctness  of  the  scholar."  "  St.  Paul,"  he  said, 
"showed  himself  before  Felix,  Festus,  and  Agrippa,  one  of 
the  best  bred  men,  one  of  the  truest  gentlemen,  in  the 
world."  Paul  was,  indeed,  if  we  could  use  such  a  com- 
parison, as  truly  a  gentleman,  as  Sir  Philip  Sidney.  What 
a  fine  regard  to  the  feelings  of  others  he  showed  when  he 
took  the  two  Jewish  Christians  to  the  temple  to  perform 
their  Nazarite  vows ! 

The  manners  of  F(3n^lon,  so  powerful  for  good  with  his 
age,  are  thus  described  by  Lamartine  in  his  Life  of  Fenelon  : 
"  Drawn  toward  all  by  his  love,  he  drew  all  in  turn  to  him- 
self. The  universal  regard  which  he  met  with  was  but  the 
rebound  of  that  aflfection  he  displayed  toward  his  fellow- 
creatures.  This  desire  to  please  was  no  artifice ;  it  was  a 
spontaneous  emotion.  He  did  not,  like  the  ambitious, 
exert  it  only  when  interest  beckoned  toward  those  who,  by 
their  friendship,  could  aid  his  advancement  or  his  schemes  ; 
it  extended  to  all."  "Equally  anxious,"  said  St.  Simon,  "to 
delight  his  superiors,  his  equals,  and  his  inferiors,  in  this 
desire  of  reciprocal  love  he  recognized  no  distinctions  of 
great  or  small,  high  or  low;  he  sought  only  to  conquer 
hearts  with  his  own ;  he  neglected  none,  and  noticed  even 
the  humblest  domestics  of  the  palace.  His  politeness  never 
seemed  an  attention  to  all,  but  a  peculiar  notice  bestowed 
on  each ;  it  imparted  its  own  character  to  his  genius.  He 
never  sought  to  dazzle  hy  display  those  who  might  have  felt 
obscured  or  humiliated  under  the  ascendency  of  his  talents." 


468  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

The  good  manners  of  Tension  were  indeed  a  Christian 
grace,  the  refinement  of  a  pure  heart,  the  expression  of  a 
Christ-like  spirit.  It  is  true  that  he  studied  to  please  ;  but 
there  was  nothing  servile  in  the  character  of  Fendlon ;  he 
showed  himself  at  times  an  obstinately  independent  man. 

Ministers  who  are  not  of  this  Pauline  and  Fcnijlon  mould 
sometimes  assume  pompous  and  self-important  manners ; 
sometimes  soft  and  overstrained  manners ;  sometimes  un- 
natural reserve  and  cold  dignity  of  bearing ;  and  sometimes 
brusque,  harsh,  imperious  manners,  which  are  all  equally 
contemptible,  and  false  types  of  the  gentleman.  The  true 
gentleman  acts  sincerely,  while  at  the  same  time  he  makes 
a  study  of  the  art  of  pleasing.  Dr.  Wayland's  advice  to  a 
young  friend  was,  "Never  make  an  enemy."  Perhaps  this 
rule,  or  principle,  might  be  amended  by  saying,  "Never 
make  au  enemy  except  where  truth  demands  this  great 
sacrifice."  An  old  English  writer  says,  "Manner  is  some- 
thing with  all,  and  everything  with  some ;  "  therefore  even 
manner  is  not  to  be  despised  by  him  who  is  seeking  to  win 
men.  The  gospel  is  good  will  to  men,  and  its  minister 
should  strive  in  small  as  well  as  in  great  things  to  show  this 
good  will  to  all ;  and  while  he  should  not  seek  to  excel 
in  the  accomplishments  of  the  dancing-master,  he  should 
take  pains  to  perfect  himself  in  the  fonns  of  good  society, 
since  it  is  quite  certain  that  one  who  defiantly  commits  a 
breach  of  etiquette  can  have  little  power  with  well-bred 
people. .  A  man  may  be  awkward,  stiff,  and  shy,  but  he 
must  not  be  totally  inattentive  to  the  feelings  of  others  if  he 
means  to  do  them  good.  The  three  points  of  clerical  good 
manners  are,  dignity,  gentleness,  and  affability.  Dignity 
is  opposed  to  frivolousness,  or  a  constant  tendency  to  un- 
steadiness of  deportment,  not  to  real  cheerfulness  or  genial 
humor.  It  leads  one  to  cultivate  a  manly  self-command, 
which  never  permits  him  to  become  a  mere  joker  or  buffoon 
in  company.  Its  prompts  one  to  restrain  an  act,  or  a  witti- 
cism, which  compromises  good  feeling,  good  taste,  or'rever- 


§  36.      SOCIAL   RELATIONS.  469 

ence  for  sacred  things.  It  leaves  an  impress  of  dignified 
repose  on  the  very  face  and  carriage,  as  if  no  low  thing,  or 
mean  thing,  could  possibly  come  from  such  a  man.  An  his- 
torian speaks  of  "the  divine  placidity  of  Bishop  Butler's 
countenance." 

Gentleness  is  the  avoiding  of  undue  harshness  and  severi- 
ty in  what  one  does  and  says ;  it  is  the  soft  answer  that 
turneth  away  wrath ;  it  is  the  conciliating  mildness  that 
wins,  in  opposition  to  the  dogmatic,  positive,  passionate, 
and  overbearing  manner. 

The  apostle  says  that  the  pastor  must  be  " gentle  "  {t^higv 
eji'ui  ngo;  Tici/Tftc)  ;  and  in  this  way  he  may  instruct  those  that 
oppose  themselves.  This  gentleness  never  descends  into  an 
unmanly  servility,  but  by  its  unexacting  modesty  puts  others 
at  ease,  and  makes  social  intercourse  pleasant  and  free. 
Affahility  is  the  opposite  of  an  unchristian  haughtiness, 
pride,  and  superciliousness ;  it  is  the  genial  warmth  that 
melts  all  it  comes  in  contact  with ;  it  goes  out  of  the  way 
sometimes  to  conciliate  and  win ;  it  is  attentive  to  every  cir- 
cumstance, and  seeks  to  discover  those  particulars  in  which 
one  can  be  of  true  service  to  another ;  it  would  bear  and 
lighten  another's  burdens.  The  total  want  of  this,  and,  on 
the  contrary,  a  disagreeable  acerbity  of  manner,  some  habit 
perhaps  of  sajdng  censorious  things,  is  often  the  whole  source 
of  a  minister's  unpopularity  and  failure. 

We  would  offer,  as  another  suggestion,  (d.)  that,  in  regard 
to  social  amusements,  a  j?iinister  should  exercise  care  to  be, 
if  possible,  in  no  ])lace  or  situation  where  his  good  may  be 
evil  spoken  of.  We  believe,  in  relation  to  this  subject,  as  to 
all  others,  in  the  principle  of  Christian  liberty,  and  that  a  min- 
ister has  as  much  right  to  exercise  this  liberty  as  any  other 
man  ;  but  there  are  places  of  amusement  in  which,  if  he  does 
not  feel  that  he  himself  would  be  injured  by  frequenting 
them,  his  presence  would  seem  to  be  out  of  place,  and 
would  do  more  harm  than  good. 

In  regard  to  the  whole  subject  of  amusements,  we  hesi- 
40 


470  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

tate  not  to  say  that  the  world  is  made  to  be  rationally  en- 
joyed, as  well  as  to  be  used  for  higher  moral  ends.  The 
world,  which  we  are  warned  in  the  Scriptures  to  avoid,  is 
not  the  physical  world,  the  green  earth  which  sprang  forth 
at  the  word  of  God,  nor  the  world  of  natural  affections, 
duties,  cares,  and  joys  into  which  we  are  born,  but  that 
moral  world  in  which  the  spirit  of  evil  reigns. 

Enjoyment  should  be  an  element  not  thrust  entirely  out- 
side of  the  Christian  category ;  for  many  things  in  God's 
world  are  made  to  be  rightly  and  innocently  enjoyed,  and 
one  might  say  that  it  is  a  sin  not  to  enjoy  them. 

There  are  also  amusements  which  are  not  in  themselves 
wrong,  and  harm  has  been  done  to  the  moral  sense  by  rank- 
ing such  amusements  in  the  same  category  with  absolutely 
wrong  things,  by  calling  them  sins.  Some  kinds  of  amuse- 
ment have  been  made  harmful  and  corrupting  by  associa- 
tions of  evil  with  them  :  these  may  not  be  indulged  in  while 
they  retain  such  associations,  which  leads  to  the  appearance 
of  evil.  But  how  ample  a  field  is  open  for  rational  recreation 
in  the  cheerful  society  of  friends,  in  encounters  of  wit  with- 
out malice,  in  the  varied,  grand,  and  beautiful  fields  of 
nature,  in  athletic  exercises,  in  the  rich  domains  of  litera- 
ture, poetry,  and  art !  Tlie  true  principle  to  guide  us  in  the 
matter  of  amusements  is,  that  they  should  be  of  a  kind  fitted 
to  renew  mind  and  body,  and  to  prepare  them  for  work. 

Amusements  are  not  the  end,  but  only  the  means — the 
means  of  enabling  men  to  do  more  and  live  better.  Any 
amusement  which  unstrings  the  body  and  unfits  the  mind 
for  their  true  work  is  only  bad.  Within  just  limitations  a 
proper  freedom  should  be  allowed  to  one's  people  and  one's 
self  in  such  things,  which,  while  it  should  never  lead  beyond 
the  bounds  of  what  is  right,  should  not  set  up  an  artificial  or 
false  moral  standard. 

The  mind  needs  some  play — not  merely  variety  of  occu- 
pation, but,  at  times,  complete  relaxation;  and  temptation 
does  not  always  lie  in  the  careless  mood  of  the  mind,  but 


§  36.       SOCIAL   RELATIONS.  471 

also  in  the  thoughtful  mood  ;  envy,  ambition,  professional 
jealousy,  and  even  more  malignant  vices,  lurk  in  the  over- 
strained and  incessantly  toiling  mind,  where  the  gentler  vir- 
tues, sympathies,  and  affections  have  no  place  to  live. 

As  another  suggestion  on  this  general  topic  of  social  rela- 
tions, we  would  say,  (e.)  that  it  is  well  for  the  minister  to 
strive  in  every  proper  way  to  cultivate  the  social  principle 
among  his  people,  and  in  the  community  where  he  lives.  The 
first  blow  of  Christianity  is  at  individual,  and  the  second  at 
social,  selfishness;  it  breaks  up  an  unchristian  exclusive- 
iiess,  educates  and  sanctifies  the  social  nature,  draws  out 
the  affections  and  widens  the  sympathies  of  men.  What, 
indeed,  is  the  use  of  having  a  nature  that  can  love  our 
brother,  if  we  never  exercise  this  love,  nor  let  our  brother 
know  that  we  love  him  ?  The  pastor  may  become  the  means 
of  making  good  people,  whether  rich  or  poor,  cultivated  or 
uneducated,  better  known  to  each  other,  of  promoting  the 
intercourse  of  families,  and  of  fusing  his  flock  together  iu 
pleasant  social  intercourse ;  and  we  cannot  exaggerate  the 
power  of  social  influence  for  good  or  for  evil,  since  society, 
as  well  as  the  individual,  is  to  be  Christianized. 

We  will  add  a  few  suggestions  which  come  naturally 
under  this  general  theme  of  social  culture. 

(/■)  The  cultivation  of  the  power  of  edifying  conversa- 
tion. Conversational  ability  serves  to  put  others  in  full 
communication  with  us,  and  to  win  their  confidence  ;  for  if 
one  can  talk  well  about  those  things  that  interest  another 
man, — business,  educational  matters,  politics, — this  may 
lead  the  way  to  something  far  more  important.  A  minister, 
in  his  social  intercourse  with  his  people,  may  draw  out  their 
minds,  and  impart  to  them  quickening  knowledge  upon  all 
subjects,  though  this  character  of  conversation,  which  mere- 
ly imparts  information,  should  not  be  the  exclusive  one. 
AVe  call  to  mind  a  minister,  an  uncommonly  well-informed 
man,  who  talked  admirably  on  every  imaginable  subject ;  and 
though  he,  at  first,  won  the  hearts  of  his  people  by  his  con- 


472  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

versational  powers,  he  finally,  it  must  be  said,  lost  them  in  the 
same  way.  While  making  a  pastoral  visit,  he  would,  for  in- 
stance, take  down  a  glass  ornament  from  the  mantel,  and  dis- 
course, during  his  entire  visit,  and  in  a  very  instructive 
manner,  on  the  art  of  glass-making,  bringing  out  the  most 
elaborate  information ;  or  he  would  take  up  a  book  from  the 
centre-table,  and  give  an  interesting  criticism,  in  fact,  a  lec- 
ture, upon  its  contents  and  its  author;  which  was  all  very 
well:  but  by  and  by  his  people  b.egau  to  inquire,  "Is  our 
pastor  never  to  say  anything  to  us  upon  religious  subjects  ?  " 
Whether  they  wished  him  to  do  so  or  not,  this  really  marked 
want  in  his  conversation  undermined  his  usefulness. 

In  the  same  manner  an  "  anecdotal "  (to  use  an  American- 
ism) minister  may  be  a  very  interesting  and  entertaining 
man ;  yet  if  he  does  nothing  but  tell  good  stories,  he  be- 
comes wearisome  ;  although  it  must  be  said  that  something 
of  this  personal  and  dramatic  vein  in  conversation,  this 
shrew^d  though  genial  appreciation  of  character,  this  pithi- 
ness of  illustration,  and  power  of  minute  detail,  is  an  ad- 
mirable quality  in  conversation;  but  if,  I'll  addition  to  this, 
or  rather  above  and  beyond  this,  there  is  no  power  to  deal 
with  principles  and  ideas,  the  conversation  loses  its  enno- 
bling, fructifying,  edifying  quality. 

We  have  spoken  of  F^nelon's  manners :  his  biographer 
speaks  of  his  conversation.  He  says  of  it,  "Adapted  to 
the  man,  the  hour,  and  the  subject,  it  was  grave,  flexible, 
luminous,  sublime,  or  playful,  but  always  noble  and  in- 
structive. In  his  most  unstudied  flights  there  was  some- 
thing sweet,  kind,  and  winning.  None  could  leave,  or 
deprive  themselves  of  the  charm  of,  his  society,  without 
wishing  to  return  to  it  again.  His  conversation  left  that 
impression  on  the  soul  which  his  voice  left  on  the  ear,  and 
his  features  in  the  eyes  —  a  new,  powerful,  and  indelible 
stamp,  which  could  never  be  effaced,  either  from  the  mind, 
the  senses,  or  the  heart.  Some  men  have  been  greater ; 
none  have  been  more  adapted  to  humanity,  and  none  have 
been  swayed  more  by  the  power  of  the  affections." 


§  36.       SOCIAL   RELATIONS.  473 

The  minister  should  cultivate,  (</.)  simplicity  of  manner. 
Again  let  us  turn  to  Fen^lon.  How  modest  was  his  spirit ! 
He  said,  "Those  who  are  truly  humble  will  be  surprised  to 
hear  anything  exalted  of  themselves.  They  are  quiet, 
cheerful,  obedient,  watchful,  fervent  in  spirit;  they  always 
take  the  lowest  place,  and  consider  every  one  superior  to 
themselves ;  they  are  lenient  to  the  faults  of  others  in  view 
of  their  own,  and  are  very  far  from  preferring  themselves 
before  any  one."  If  all  ministers  cannot  stoop  so  low  as  this, 
do  they  all  share  in  this  simple  sjiirit,  preferring  lowness  to 
exaltation  ?  Do  ministers  assume  nothing  upon  their  being 
ministers?  Dr.  Chalmers,  with  all  his  intense  love  of  poli- 
tics, his  Scotch  sagacity,  and  his  shrewd  knowledge  of  men, 
had  the  simplicity  of  a  little  child  —  the  simplicity  of  an 
entire  absence  of  malice  or  vanity. 

(Ji.)  The  cultivation  of  a  peaceable  spirit.  Rom.  13  :  18, 
^^If  it  he  possible,  as  much  as  lieth  in  you,  live  peaceably 
with  all  men." 

'^And  the  servant  of  the  Lord  must  not  strive."  Is  there 
not  a  disputatious  class  of  ministers?  We  do  not  refer  to 
those  who  engage  in  manly  discussion  for  the  truth's  sake  : 
the  Stoics  had  a  saying,  that  even  wise  men  might  some- 
times be  at  variance  with  each  other  in  opinion ;  and  so  too, 
we  might  add,  may  good  men  also  difler ;  but  if  a  minister 
attempts  to  answer  everything  that  is  said  to  and  about  him, 
to  oppose  every  petty  assault  upon  him,  to  carry  through 
every  notion,  fancy,  or  scheme,  he  will  have  his  hands  full. 
One's  peaceableness  should  not,  it  is  true,  descend  into 
acquiescence  with  actual  injustice  and  wrong ;  for  the  time 
may  come  when  a  minister  should  fight,  if  not  for  his  own 
rights,  yet  for  the  rights  of  others. 

{i.)  The  cidtivation  of  a  spirit  of  entire  truthfulness. 
Vinet  quotes  the  example  of  the  apostle  Paul  in  this  re- 
spect, whose  tact  at  the  same  time  in  dealing  with  men  no 
one  would  question.  He  says,  "St.  Paul  deeply  felt  these 
truths.  He  testifies  more  than  once  that  his  conduct  was 
40* 


474  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

without  artifice.  (2  Cor.  4  :  2.)  It  rejoices  him  to  say  that 
ill  him  there  was  no  yea  and  nay.  (2  Cor.  1 :  18.)  He  ven- 
tm-es  to  rebuke  an  apostle  who  did  not  walk  uprightly. 
(Gal.  2  :  14.)"  It  is  a  bad  thing  for  a  minister  to  acquire 
the  reputation  of  general  want  of  candor ;  or  of  inaccuracy 
and  looseness  of  statement ;  or  of  being  a  man  who 
decorates  what  he  says ;  or  who  regards  victory  more  than 
truth  ;  or  who  breaks  his  engagements  easily ;  or  who  is 
culpably  careless  in  small  trusts  ;  or  whose  word  is  not  en- 
tirely and  absolutely  trustworthy.  This  saps,  little  by  little, 
the  tallest  tower  of  ministerial  reputation.  While  a  minis- 
ter's official  hands  are  outwardly  building  up  to  heaven,  his 
real  character  among  men  is  secretly  undermining  his  own 
work.  He  is  the  priest  of  Truth  ;  let  him  not  only  light  her 
fires  on  sacred  solemnities,  but  let  him  not  sufler  the  sacred 
flame  to  go  out,  for  an  instant,  upon  the  altar  of  his  own 
heart. 

(y.)  The  abhorrence  of  covetousness.  There  is  assuredly 
a  true  principle  of  self-interest,  which,  under  proper  re- 
strictions, is  right ;  but  when  this  quality  becomes  inordi- 
nate, and  grows  into  a  selfish  spirit  which  is  continually  on 
the  watch  for  some  advantage,  some  worldly  gain,  even  in 
the  sacred  calling,  —  it  is  the  temper  of  one  whom  the  New 
Testament  terms  "  a  hireling."  This  was  the  sin  of  Simon 
Magus,  against  whom  the  apostle  flamed  out  in  righteous 
indignation,  saying,  "  Thi/  money jjerish  with  thee;"  for  his 
spirit  of  covetousness  revealed  a  heart  utterly  opposed  to 
the  conception  of  the  ministerial  gift  and  work.  The  words 
of  the  apostle  were  especially  addressed  to  the  jjastor : 
"  The  love  of  money  is  the  root  of  all  evil;  which  lohile  some 
coveted  after,  they  have  erred  from  the  faith;  but  thou,  O 
man  of  God,  flee  those  things."  "  A  bisliop  must  not  be 
given  to  filthy  lucre;"  and,  hard  as  the  saying  is,  a  poor 
man  (though  not  so  much  tempted  to  Ije  so)  can  sometimes 
be  equally  covetous  with  a  rich  man  ;  for  it  is  not  the  fact 
of   silver   or  gold,    or  property,  —  good   things   in   them- 


§  36.    SOCIAL   EELATIONS.  475 

selves,  —  but  the  inward  desire,  the  spiritual  greed,  which 
constitutes  covetousness.  The  Pharisees  were  religious 
teachers,  and  strictly  so,  too,  but  it  was  said  of  them,  that 
they  were  given  to  covetousness  ;  and  the  covetous  minister 
at  this  day  will  be  drawn  by  this  single  passion  into  Phar- 
isaism, both  of  doctrine  and  life ;  the  leaven  of  the  Phar- 
isees will  work  in  his  whole  nature,  which  is  a  deadly  eviL 

The  great  guiding  principle  of  a  minister's  life,  in  relation 
to  his  people,  is  the  spirit  of  the  apostle's  words  (2  Cor. 
12:  14),  "/ see^•  not  yours,  hut  you.''^ 

As  the  care  of  the  poor  falls  especially  upon  the  pastor, 
he  should,  to  the  extent  of  his  ability,  be  a  man  of  open 
hand,  and  should  give  the  tone  to  the  spirit  of  benevolence 
among  his  people,  being  first  in  all  good  works. 

Yet  the  pastor  is  by  no  means  called  upon  to  be  an  im- 
provident man  ;  he  is  to  provide  for  his  own  ;  he  has  a  right 
to  live  by  the  altar  which  he  serves,  and  he  is  worthy  of  his 
hire.  He  should  insist  upon  having  a  regular  and  sufficient 
salary,  one  paid  in  good  currency,  and  not  in  the  uncertain 
generosity  of  individuals.  ^'^Even  so  hath  the  Lord  ordained, 
that  they  tvJiich  preach  the  gos]jel  should  live  of  the  gospel;" 
and  the  reasons  for  this  are  obvious :  the  work  is  a  real 
work ;  it  is  the  labor  of  hand  and  brain  as  much  as  any 
other;  and  it  is  not,  too,  without  cost,  for  the  minister  must 
pay  for  his  education,  and  he  relinquishes  the  usual  means 
of  gain  in  order  to  devote  himself  to  the  ministry  of  the 
word ;  his  position  is  an  expensive  one,  and  simple  justice 
requires  that  he  should  be  paid  for  his  public  services,  like 
any  other  man  who  serves  the  public. 

It  must,  however,  be  said  of  Protestant  ministers  in  con- 
tinental Europe,  that,  as  a  general  rule,  both  in  town  and 
country,  they  live  very  simply  and  plainly,  and  therefore, 
in  this  respect,  like  the  primitive  pastors  and  ministers.' 
Calvin,  it  is  related  by  his  biographers,  kept  house  for  about 
two  hundred  and  fifty  francs  a  year.  We  have  seen  it 
stated,  and  can  partly  confirm  it  by  personal  observation. 


476  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

that  the  country  Protestant  ministers  of  Switzerland, 
France,  and  Germany  frequently  live  in  peasant  cottages, 
with  sanded  floors,  eating  on  boards  without  table-cloths, 
and  sitting  on  bare  wooden  benches.  Much  of  their  living 
is  obtained  from  their  gardens,  which  they  are  accustomed 
to  cultivate  with  their  own  hands.  The  very  communion 
service  used  in  their  little  parish  churches  sometimes  con- 
sists of  wooden  plates  and  pewter  cups.  This  may  be 
a  strongly  drawn  statement;  but  we  mention  it  because, 
it  may  be,  that  in  our  land,  in  these  later  times,  we,  or 
some  of  us,  have  erred  in  the  other  direction — in  not 
preserving  a  sufficient  simplicity  of  living ;  and  because  the 
example  of  these  ministers,  who  are,  in  many  instances, 
university-educated  men,  and  who  yet  choose  to  live  like 
the  humblest  of  their  flocks,  is  a  salutary  and  encouraging 
one  to  all.  We  believe,  however,  where  the  means  allow, 
that  good  taste  and  refinement  may  be  mingled  with  a 
simple  and  unostentatious  method  of  domestic  economy  — 
the  uniting,  as  Wordsworth  said,  "plain  living  and  high 
thinking." 

Finally,  the  unselfish  spirit  should  prevail  in  all  the  inter- 
course and  relations  of  life  ;  and  one  should  be  willing  him- 
self to  sufler  rather  than  to  exhibit  selfishness  toward  others, 
as  Pastor  Harms  said,  "Better  be  the  anvil  than  the  ham- 
mer "  —  better  take  the  hard  blows  one's  self,  than  show  a 
hard  and  exacting  spirit  toward  other  men. 

§  37.     Public  Relations. 

The  pastor  of  an  American  church  does  not  belong  merely 
to  his  own  church,  although  his  first  duty  is  to  it :  he  be- 
longs also  to  the  public.  He  is,  in  an  eminent  degree,  a 
public  man,  upon  whom,  in  a  formative  state  of  society  like 
ours,  much  grave  responsibility  of  a  public  nature  neces- 
sarily foils.  Vinet,  though  a  European,  held  large  ideas 
of  the  universal  character  of  the  pastoral  office,  and  thought 


§  37.       PUBLIC  RELATIONS.  477 

that  the  Christian  minister  should  be  himself  the  type  of  a 
Avhole  human  life,  even  as  Christian  faith  takes  human  life 
up  and  redeems  it  in  every  part  and  every  function,  and 
the  entire  man  is  made  complete  in  Christ.     The  pastor 
should  not  shrink  from  these  legitimate  requirements  of  a 
public  nature,  when  they  do  not  interfere  with  more  essen- 
tial duties ;  aud  he  should  strive,  in  obedience  to  the  great 
law  of  love  to  our  neighbor,  not  only  to  build  up  sino-le 
souls  in  Christ,  but  the  community,  and  the  state  itself,  into 
a  higher  life  —  into  the  life  of  a  true  Christian  state.     Let 
the  minister,  then,  learn  to  cherish  comprehensive  views  of 
his  relations  to  all  men,  though  not  to  the  neglect  of  his 
primary  duties  to  his  own  people.     Let  him  cultivate  the 
power  of  following  out  the  wider  relations  of  moral  princi- 
ples to  their  practical  results  in  the    country  and  in  the 
world,    studying  the  workings  of  ideas  under  the  surface 
of  society,    and  their  effect  upon  the  popular  character; 
discovering  the  true  bearings  of  ideas,  and  having  boldness 
to  meet  those  ideas  in  their  social  and  public,  as  well  as 
their  more  strictly  personal  and  spiritual,  aspects,  to  search 
them  through  in  the  light  of  human  history,  and  of  a  true 
Christian  philosophy.      Let   him    not    leave  this  field   en- 
tirely open  to  the  sway  of  false  thinking,    because   it   is 
not  in  a  narrow  view  of  the  case  precisely  his  own  limited 
field  of  ministerial  labor.     Ho  is  to  oppose  error,  aud  help 
to  build  broad  and  deep  the    foundations  of  a  true  Chris- 
tian civilization,  wherein  all  the  interests  of  the  Christian 
church  are  enshrined  and  conserved.     If  a  minister  ignores 
and  surrenders  this  grand  idea  of  the  public  good,  he  is  apt 
to  become  a  commonplace  and    second-rate  man  — a  kind 
of  parish  priest. 

1.  As  the  discussion  of  the  moral  government  of  God 
does  not  confine  itself  to  the  science  of  theology,  but 
looks  to  the  application  of  the  principles  of  truth,  jus- 
tice, order,  love, — to  every  form  of  human  life,  society^ 
and    government^  —  the    minister   should    not    confine   his 


478  TASTORAL    OFFICE. 

attention  to  the  technically  theological  view  of  God's 
"■overnment,  but  should  send  his  eye  abroad  to  the  actual 
condition  of  the  world  in  its  relations  to  the  moral  govern- 
ment of  God,  and  ask  where  and  how  there  may  be,  as  far 
as  human  agency  can  effect  it,  improvement  in  the  state  of 
the  world,  or  a  better  understanding  and  obedience  of  the 
great  fundamental  laws  of  society  and  government.  It  is, 
indeed,  true  that  he  who  M'orks  in  the  realm  of  spirit — 
who  labors  to  bring  men  into  the  kingdom  and  will  of  God 
—  is  doing  the  deepest  work  toward  the  general  improve- 
ment of  society  and  the  world ;  but,  in  addition  to  that, 
direct  efforts  aimed  at  the  prominent  evils  of  society  are 
called  for  from  true  men,  and  every  moral  and  political 
reform  should  receive  the  minister's  support,  and  at  fit  times 
from  the  pulpit;  and  he  should  give  no  unwilling,  timid,  or 
uncertain  support.  He  should  not  cease  maintaining  a  good 
cause,  from  the  reason  there  may  be  men  engaged  in  it  with 
whom  he  cannot  sympathize  in  strictly  religious  matters,  or 
who  make  moral  reform  and  "  social  science  "  their  religion. 
The  heterodox  Samaritan,  who  did  a  deed  of  charity  to  his 
neighbor,  was  approved  above  the  orthodox  Levite. 

As  the  Christian  pastor  is  a  leader  (f^yov/j-spo;)  of  men,  he 
owes  the  state  a  more  marked,  prompt,  and  high-toned  ser- 
vice than  other  men ;  and  he  should  let  it  be  known  that  he 
does,  and  does  intentionally,  carry  his  religion  into  his 
duties  as  a  man  and  a  citizen.  The  minister  is  to  show 
what  political  atheism  would  be  delighted  to  disprove  — 
that  Christianity  is  beautifully  adapted  to  the  highest  state 
of  civilization  which  can  be  attained,  and  is,  in  fact,  the 
germinal  principle  of  such  a  civilization. 

Therefore  the  minister  should,  in  a  country  like  this,  not 
be  unmindful  of  the  power  oi puhlic  opinion,  and  should 
seek  to  influence  that  opinion  for  good  as  far  as  he  can,  and 
to  salt  with  truth  the  springs  of  influence,  which  go  to 
vitalize  the  state  as  well  as  the  individual. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  true  that  Christianity  does  not  assume, 


§  37.      PUBLIC   RELATIONS.  479 

as  yet,  the  entire  control  of  public  affairs.  It  comes  as 
an  independent  force  into  the  world,  and  must  work  its 
way  along  with  other  forces,  until,  by  the  manifestation 
of  its  superiority  and  divinity,  it  obtains  the  mastery  of 
affairs.  Thus  the  minister  of  Christianity  should  be  con- 
tent to  work  patiently  in  a  humble  way,  and  should  nqt 
be  arrogant  in  asserting  the  claims  of  his  religion.  Chris- 
tianity works  from  within  outward,  so  that  undeniably 
its  prime  method  of  progress  is  to  bring  the  single  soul, 
or  will,  into  the  dominion  of  the  will  of  God,  and  by  thus 
making  it  an  agent  of  subduing  other  wills  to  God,  acts 
as  a  hidden  leaven  in  society  and  the  world.  The  min- 
ister should  not  be  a  public  man,  and  a  leader  of  public 
opinion,  and  nothing  else ;  his  faith  must  be  still  in  the 
secret,  viewless,  mighty  power  of  God,  operating  in  har- 
mony with  the  truth ;  and  he  must  rest  on  God  as  the 
real  reforming  power  in  the  world,  and  not  lose  heart  or 
hope  when  a  human  theory  of  progress  fails.  God  is  more 
concerned  to  work  ri<2:liteousness  and  brinof  about  the  tri- 
umph  of  truth  in  the  world  than  the  best  man  is ;  and  God 
should  be  the  spring  of  our  strength  and  effort  in  all  genuine 
movements  for  the  public  good.  A  minister  should  under 
DO  circumstances  become  a  demagogue,  who  mounts  upon 
a  current  of  popular  excitement  to  increase  his  personal 
popularity  or  power ;  for  such  a  man  pollutes  his  office,  and 
is  ruled  by  the  people  ultimately,  instead  of  ruling  them  ;  or 
he  is  apt  to  make  some  enoraious  blunder,  which  reacts  dis- 
astrously upon  his  own  reputation  and  good  influence.  A 
minister  should  keep  these  public  questions  subordinate 
to  truth  and  higher  spiritual  interests,  and  people  should 
not  get  the  idea  that  he  is  more  interested  in  such  public 
questions  than  in  those  higher  questions  of  truth  and  duty 
that  lie  behind  them — in  fact,  in  the  gospel.  He  should 
strive  to  diffuse  the  new  spirit  of  the  gospel  into  human 
society,  and  it  should  be  for  this  purpose,  and  this  purpose 
alone,  that  he  descends  into  the  arena  of  public  affairs.     He 


480  PASTOKAL   OFFICE. 

is  the  friend  of  humanity  ;  he  is  to  preach  Christ  in  his 
vast  and  varied  reUitions  to  human  law  and  life,  and,  like  the 
"prophet  "  of  old,  he  is  to  pursue  wrong  fearlessly  in  high 
l^laces  and  low,  to  tear  away  its  mask,  and  to  set  forth  the 
right  as  clear  as  the  sun. 

.2.  As  the  interests  of  religion  and  education  go  together ; 
as  true  knowledge  is  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  springs 
from  God ;  and  as  faith  itself,  up  to  a  certain  point,  is  con- 
stantly turning  into  knowledge,  — therefore  it  is  the  respon- 
sibility of  the  Christian  minister  to  set  Christ  as  the  heart 
of  the  educational  as  well  as  the  spiritual  world,  as  "  the  light 
of  the  world.^'  There  is  a  ceaseless  struggle  going  on  here. 
There  is  a  powerful  element  in  the  world,  and  in  our  land, 
opposed  to  the  supernatural  claims  of  the  Christian  faith, 
whose  effort  is  to  obtain  control  of  every  source  of  influence, 
and  especially  of  that  immense  spring  of  power  which  is  com- 
prehended in  the  education  of  the  land;  for  men  well  know 
that  they  who  educate  the  nation  govern  the  nation.  The 
minister  of  the  higher  light  and  truth  should  not  slumber 
at  his  post ;  and  though  pressed  for  time,  he  should  not  shun 
positions  which  yield  him  opportunity  to  exert  some  shaping 
influence  upon  public  education. 

Under  this  theme  we  might  speak  of  a  minister's  connec- 
tion with  the  press  and  the  general  world  of  letters,  which 
we  have  done  in  another  relation,  and  which  is  an  unlimited 
field  of  public  influence.  A  minister  should,  in  some  part 
of  his  life,  expect  to  do  good  through  his  pen,  even  if  it  may 
be  outside  of  the  field  of  theological  literature.  If  he  has  any 
peculiar  intellectual  taste,  whether  for  literature  or  science, 
should  he  leave  it  uncultivated?  Some  ministers  have  been 
successful  in  the  field  of  science,  and  sovereigns  in  the  realm 
of  literature.  Not  only  such  great  men  as  Jeremy  Taylor, 
Robert  Hall,  Dr.  Chalmers,  Dr.  Arnold,  will  preach  through 
their  writings  to  all  coming  time,  but  many  of  our  living 
American  ministers  are  doing  much  to  infuse  a  better  spirit 
into  the  courses  of  literature,  and  are  writing  good  books 


§  37.       PUBLIC    RELATIONS.  481 

on  all  subjects.  After  the  first  strain  of  his  professional 
duties  is  passed,  a  minister  may  begin  to  write  for  the  reli- 
gious press  ;  only  let  him  guard  against  the  passion  of  see- 
ing himself  in  print.  "Never,"  said  Leigh  Hunt,  "draw  up 
the  curtain  until  you  feel  pretty  certain  that  you  have  some- 
thing to  show  in  the  window." 

3.  Artistic,  industrial,  and  agricultural  interests  —  every- 
thing, in  fact,  that  improves  and  humanizes  society  —  should 
not  lie  altogether  outside  of  a  Christian  pastor's  attention 
and  sympathy.  He  should  do  his  share  —  and  it  is  a  large 
one — to  form  a  society  in  which  all  the  faculties,  activities, 
and  affections  of  men,  may  be  developed  from  the  central 
principle  of  the  love  of  God  through  the  regenerating  power 
of  Christ's  spirit,  so  that,  in  some  faint  degree,  the  society 
of  earth  may  resemble  the  society  of  heaven. 
41 


PART  FOURTH. 

THE  PASTOR  IN  HIS  RELATIONS  TO  THE 
CHURCH. 


FIRST  DIVISION. 
PUBLIC  WORSHIP. 

§  38.     Theory  and  Form  of  Public  Worship. 

The  relations  of  the  pastor  to  the  church  and  to  the  peo- 
ple of  his  care,  which  form  the  pith  and  marrow  of  his 
office,  and  compared  with  which  all  else  is  subordinate, —  this 
theme  naturally  resolves  itself  into  two  main  parts. 

Public  ivorsJiip  and  the  care  of  souls. 

The  first  of  these — iniblic  ivorshij)  —  has  reference  to  the 
stated  and  regular  service  of  God,  or  the  external  religious 
cultus,  where  the  whole  congregation  of  Christian  people 
are  brought  together  for  the  solemn  praise  and  worship  of 
God.  The  duties  and  functions  of  the  Christian  ministry 
are  so  intimately  connected  and  entwined  with  this,  that  it 
is  necessary  to  discuss  it  with  some  little  care. 

1.  There  is  a  necessity  in  our  nature  to  express  religious 
feelings  in  some  outward  manner ;  to  manifest,  in  some  ap- 
propriate external  way,  the  sentiment  of  reverence  and 
adoration  toward  God.      This  principle  of  representation, 

(482) 


§  38.      THEORY   OF  PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  483 

united  with  the  social  element  in  man,  which  impels  him 
to  a  fellowship  with  others  even  in  his  most  devotional 
acts,  leads  to  public  worship.  Worship  is  not  precisely 
religion  itself,  but  it  is  the  expression  of  the  religious  senti- 
ment in  an  act  that  comprehends  the  offering  up  of  the  whole 
man,  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  to  God.  All  parts  of  our  com- 
plex nature  enter  into  this  act,  and  all  of  them  are  fitly 
represented  in  the  great  common  act.  of  public  worship. 
Thus,  the  bodily  nature  is  represented  by  the  actual  pres- 
ence in  the  house  of  God,  by  the  attitude  of  devotion, 
and  by  the  outward  ordinance  which  appeals  to  the  bodily 
eye  and  sense.  This  is  that  symbolic  element  in  wor- 
ship to  which  belong  the  external  form  and  method  of 
devotion. 

There  is  also  the  emotional  part  of  the  nature,  which  enters 
profoundly  into  public  worship,  the  rendering  up  of  the  spir- 
itual sensibilities  and  affections  to  God,  the  expressing  of 
itself  in  the  penitential  confession,  the  sacred  lyric,  and  the 
adoring  praj-er :  this  forms  the  purely  liturgical  element 
in  worship  —  that  which  is  vitally  essential  to  its  life  and 
fervor.  Genuine  feeling  is  the  soul  of  worship,  and,  above 
all,  the  feeling  of  dependent  trust  and  affectionate  devotion 
toward  God,  the  true  ^^sursum  corda"  of  the  primitive 
church.  We  can,  indeed,  think  of  many  other  things  which 
come  into,  and  must  come  into.  Christian  worship;  but  if 
the  heai^t  is  wanting,  all  is  wanting.  The  intellect  and  con- 
science, it  is  true,  enter  largely  into  Christian  worship;  but 
worship,  in  its  inmost  sense,  is  not  intellectual  instruction, 
Dor  is  it  the  active  operation,  at  the  time,  of  the  moral 
sense, — i.  e.,  doing  acts  of  duty  or  benevolence, —  but  it  is 
the  lifting  up  of  the  heart  to  God  in  humble,  penitent,  joy- 
ful adoration.  1  It  is  the  expression  of  the  love  and  will- 
ing service  of  God,  and  of  readiness  and  yearning  to  receive 
spiritual  gifts  from  him.     The  heart  of  the  worshipper  must 

'  Hagenbach's  Liturgik  und  Homiletik,  c.  i.  §  3. 


484  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

bo  brought  into  this  fit  state  to  receive  blessiiiofs  from  God. 
It  should  be  in  a  receptive  as  well  as  active  state  ;  indeed,  it 
might  be,  in  part,  in  a  purely  passive  condition  —  one  of  love, 
faith,  trust ;  one  able  to  receive  as  well  as  to  give. 

And  again,  the  intellectual,  or  the  rational  nature  including 
both  the  conscience  and  will,  has  its  appropriate  place  in 
the  solemn  act  of  public  worship :  this  is  the  didactic  ele- 
ment, that  leads  the  soul  into  truth,  and  builds  it  up  in 
the  spirit  and  life  of  Christ.  Vinet,  quoting  from  Harms, 
says  that  "preaching  is  only  an  accidental  adjunct  of  wor- 
ship, not  an  integral  part  of  it."  We  cannot  agree  to  that, 
and  we  should  prefer  to  take  the  larger  view  of  worship 
which  has  already  been  given,  and  which  implies  the 
engaging  of  all  the  faculties  and  powers  of  the  being, 
rational  as  well  as  emotional,  in  the  one  comprehensive 
act  of  consecration  and  praise  to  God.  Protestants 
/  rightly  view  preaching  the  word  as  a  main  part  of  Chris- 
/tiau  worship,  and  Protestants  should  not,  therefore,  lose 
sight  of  the  fact  that  preaching  is  worship ;  that  God, 
and  not  the  human  preacher,  is  the  great  end  of  preach- 
ing ;  that  preaching  itself  is  but  a  part  of  the  praise  of 
God.  Preaching,  as  an  element  of  public  worship,  is  a 
thing  very  different  from  the  popular  address  or  lecture  upon 
any  ethical  theme,  however  useful  it  may  be.  Preaching  has 
certain  features  which  constitute  its  proper  relations  to  the 
worship  of  God's  house,  which  make  it  also  an  act  of  praise, 
and  which  do  not  permit  it  to  stand  isolated  as  a  mere 
effort  of  the  human  mind,  or  a  pure  expression  of  thought. 
True  worship  is,  indeed,  the  edifying  or  building  up  of  the 
people  in  all  Christian  faith  and  godliness ;  but  it  does  this 
by  leading  them  to  God,  in  prayer,  song,  reading  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  preaching ;  by  developing  the  divine  life,  the 
real  Christian  feeling,  the  true  spirit  of  Christian  love,  that 
is  in  the  people.  It  is  bringing  out  this  consciousness  of 
the  life  of  God  and  Christ  that  exists  in  the  souls  of  the 
congregation,  giving  expression  to  this,  and  thus  warming 


§  38.      THEORY  OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  485 

into  new  growth  and  activity  every  power  and  quality  of  the 
Christian  life. 

True  worship  makes  better  Christians,  purer,  more  self- 
sacrificinof  and  conra2reous  workers  in  all  a^ood  thinijs,  be- 
cause  the  heart  has  been  kindled  by  contact  with  the  heart 
of  Christ.  In  the  same  way,  preaching  to  save  the  souls 
of  the  impenitent  finds  its  highest  impulse  iu  the  praise  and 
glory  of  God,  that  those  darkened  and  silent  spirits  may, 
by  the  renewing  spirit  of  Christ  given  to  them,  break  their 
chains  of  sin,  and  join  in  the  universal  song  of  praise  that 
goes  up  from  holy  hearts  to  the  blessed  Lord  and  Redeemer 
of  our  nature.  This  deep  inter-relation  of  preaching  to  the 
whole  idea  of  divine  worship  is,  we  think,  a  very  important 
one,  and  settles  many  questions  in  regard  to  the  subject- 
matter,  style,  length,  manner,  and  entire  character  of  the 
sermon  in  the  public  services  of  the  sanctuary. 

Lastly,  and  above  all,  the  more  purely  spir'itual  element 
should  not  be  wanting.  This  is  the  drawing  out  of  the 
highest  nature  of  man  in  the  adoration  of  God,  raising  man 
to  a  participation  with  God  in  spiritual  things,  and  pro- 
moting a  real  and,  present  union  with  Christ.  This  is  that 
inner  soul-element  w^hich  constitutes  true  spiritual  worship, 
as  contradistinguished  from  all  merely  human,  formal,  ritual, 
and  external  worship ;  which,  in  fine,  fulfils  the  words  of 
the  Saviour  when  he  said,  "But  the  hour  cometJi,  and  now 
is,  when  the  true  worshippers  shall  worship  the  Father  in 
spirit  and  in  truth."  This  is  the  worship  which  Christ 
himself  and  his  disciples  rendered  to  the  Father  of  all 
mercies,  and  which  now,  in  the  name  and  through  the  faith 
of  the  Son  of  God,  is  rendered  by  true  believers,  the  world 
over,  to  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
This  conception  of  public  worship  which  has  been  set  forth, 
which  summons  the  varied  nature  of  man  to  a  high  and  joy- 
ful act  of  praise,  and  consecrates  his  entire  b^ing,  body  and 
soul,  as  a  reasonable  offering  to  God,  meets,  we  believe, 
the  highest  Christian  consciousness,  as  we  find  it  developed 
41* 


486  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

ill  the  New  Testament,  and  in  the  history  and  worship  of 
the  Christian  church. 

None  of  the  elements  which  have  been  mentioned  should 
be  wanting  in  the  great  common  act  of  public  worship ; 
all  should  have  their  proper  place,  and  the  loss  of  even 
one  of  them  would  seriously  impair  the  unity,  beauty,  and 
truth  of  their  worship.  Without  the  outward  form  of  devo- 
tion, we  run  into  the  subjective  and  inexpressive  idea  of 
worship,  which  tends  to  degenerate  into  no-worship,  and 
evaporates  in  silence  and  nonentity.  In  the  absence  of  the 
emotional  or  more  purely  devotional  element,  the  worship 
becomes  lifelessly  formal  or  fatally  rationalistic,  for  the 
external  form  is  meaningless  without  the  spirit  which  gives 
it  life ;  so  that  if  a  man  goes  to  church  with  the  sole  idea 
of  gaining  instruction,  of  having  doubtful  points  cleared 
up,  and  he  obtains  no  new  light  on  the  dark  things  of 
truth,  he  might  very  well  say,  "It  would  be  as  well  for  me 
to  stay  at  home ;  I  have  books  written  by  master  minds ; 
I  o-et  no  food  here."  Yet  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  di- 
dactic  element  were  taken  away,  the  worship  would  sink 
into  bald  ritualism ;  not  a  ray  of  the  divine  intelligence 
would  shine  through  it,  and,  for  all  power  to  help  a  soul 
to  rise  to  God,  it  would  be  "as  sounding  brass  or  a  tinMing 
cymbal." 

2.  We  have  thus  set  forth  the  general  theory  of  public 
worship,  let  us  now  look  for  a  moment  at  its  actual/orm 
and  expression.  This  outward  form,  where  it  does  not 
embrace  actual  error,  is,  we  hold,  left  substantially  to  the 
choice  and  regulation  of  the  church ;  therefore  we  think  it 
profitable  to  inquire  into  all  legitimate  sources  of  power, 
interest,  fervor,  and  truth  in  public  worship. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  more  spiritual  the  church, 
is  the  less  need  it  has  of  outward  forms  of  worship  ;  yet  even 
that  principle  cannot  be  carried  too  far,  for  in  heaven, 
where  it  is  supposed  that  forms  will  not  be  needed,  there  is 
represented  to  be  something  like  form,  harmony,  and  com- 


§  38.       THEORY    OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  487 

munion  in  worship.  The  four  and  twenty  eiders  give  praise 
to  the  Lord  God  Almighty ;  the  hundred  and  forty  and 
four  thousand  sing  the  new  song,  and  the  harpers  join  with 
them ;  there  is  a  definite  theme  of  praise,  and  a  definite 
number  who  sing  and  praise  togetlier.  Now,  if  this  is  an 
image  given  us  of  the.  praise  and  worship  of  heaven,  it 
would  seem  as  if  some  form  were  needed  for  those  who 
still  possess  human  bodies,  associations,  and  sympathies, 
and  who  are  creatures  of  time  and  place. 

The  great  question,  then,  is,  —  and  the  pastor,  who  is  the 
leader  of  the  worship,  is  especially  interested  in  it,  —  How 
much  of  outward  form  is  required  in  the  public  worship  of 
God? 

The  general  testimony  of  the  New  Testament  is  assuredly 
in  favor  of  simple  forms  of  worship  —  of  the  simplest 
framework  necessary  to  sustain  the  tender  plants  of  devo- 
tion, lest  they  be  trampled  in  the  mire  of  common  things. 
But,  still,  in  the  New  Testament  itself  there  is  evidence  of 
a  considerable  variety  in  the  matter  of  form,  and  the  whole 
subject  of  public  worship  was  evidently  left  pretty  much  to 
the  needs  and  will  of  the  churches,  or  of  those  who  presided 
over  them.  But  toward  the  close  of  the  apostolic  period,  we 
have  the  fact  clearly  developed,  that  there  was  something 
like  a  regularly  organized  public  service  of  God,  consisting 
of  distinct  parts,  as  in  our  public  service  at  this  day ;  and 
special  directions  are  given  in  the  later  Epistles  respecting 
the  order  of  the  exercises,  the  whole  course  of  public  worship, 
and  the  conduct  of  the  persons  engaged  in  it.  In  the  writ- 
ings, both  sacred  and  profane,  immediately  succeeding  the 
apostolic  age,  the  same  fact  is  confirmed,  down  to  the  period 
when  form  usurped  the  place  of  spirit,  and  worship  became 
a  corrupt  externalism.  But  we  will  not  go  over  the  histori- 
cal ground ;  we  would  only  say  a  word  in  regard  to  the 
Lord's  Sujpper,  which  has  been  sometimes  thought  to  be  the 
historic  germ  of  Christian  public  worship.  This,  we  think, 
can  hardly  be  so ;  for  there  is  strong  proof  that  when  the 


488  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

Lord's  Supper  was  celebrated  every  time  Christians  met 
together,  and  every  day  by  the  church  of  Jerusalem,  it  was 
then  connected  with  the  "  Agapas "  or  "  Feasts  of  Love,"  and 
was  not,  therefore,  strictly  to  be  considered  as  forming  a 
part  of  divine  worship ;  but  it  was  rather  a  feast  of  Chris- 
tian love  and  friendship,  in  which  Christ  formed  one  —  a  sim- 
p\e  continuation  of  the  first  supper,  only  it  recognized  Christ 
in  a  more  formal  manner,  as  the  real  bond  of  love  and  fel- 
lowship. We  do  not  think  that  any  argument  can  be  drawn 
from  this  that  the  Lord's  Supper  ought  to  be  looked  upon 
as  the  originating  cause  of  Christian  worship,  or  that  it 
should  be  celebrated  every  Sunday.  The  historian  Cave, 
it  is  true,  takes  the  ground  that  the  growing  laxity  in 
celebrating  the  Lord's  Supper,  first  every  Sabbath,  then 
every  month,  then  every  two  months,  is  evidence  of  the 
decline  of  faith  in  the  primitive  church ;  but  even  in  Justin 
Martyr's  day  we  find  that  the  Lord's  Supper  was  already 
separated  from  the  "Feasts  of  Love,"  and  did  not,  therefore, 
form  the  direct  object  or  occasion  of  every  assemblage  of 
Christians,  whether  for  social  purposes  or  public  worship. 
This  idea,  however,  seized  upon  by  the  Romish  church,  of 
clustering  everything  about  the  Eucharist,  has  led  to  the 
Eomish  Mass,  and,  in  fact,  to  the  whole  vast  system  and 
structure  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church.  The  Lord's 
Supper  is,  undoubtedly,  the  highest  and  tenderest  act  of 
Christian  public  worship ;  but  it  is  not  the  only,  nor  even 
the  seminal,  act  of  all  Christian  public  worship,  nor  do  we 
believe  that  our  Lord  would  wish  it  to  be  so  reo;arded. 

Some  kind  of  formal  worship  is,  then,  to  be  regarded  as 
necessary ;  for  even  Quakers  admit  this  by  their  coming 
together  in  regular  places  of  solemn  assembl}^  and  every 
Christian  body,  or  denomination,  has  its  regular  form  of 
public  worship,  just  as  truly  as  the  Roman  Catholics  have 
theirs.  Our  Congregational  worship  is  as  much  a  form  as 
/  that  of  any  other  Christian  body,  only  a  much  simpler  form  ; 
and  in  many  instances   we   ourselves   have  come  to  have 


§  38.       THEORY    OF    PUBLIC    WORSHIP.  489 

fixed  forms  of  words,  though  taken  from  the  Bible,  as  in 
our  benedictions,  and  formulas  for  baptism  and  the  Lord's 
Supper.  There  is,  indeed,  a  strong  tendency  in  our  very 
prayers  to  run  into  set  forms  of  words,  showing  that  there 
is  a  certain  under-current  toward  permanent  methods  of 
expression  even  in  the  freest  systems  of  public  worship. 

The  question  next  arises.  What  kind  of  formal  worship 
(humauly  speaking)  is  best  adapted  to  meet  the  true  ends 
of  worship ;  to  produce,  sustain,  and  develop  the  spirit  of 
praise,  and  the  feeling  of  true  devotion  and  adoration? 

There  are  three  great  principles,  drawn  from  our  mental 
constitution,  that  should  enter  into  the  act  of  Christian  pub- 
lic worship,  viz.,  order,  freedom ^  and  union,  or  communion. 
The  first  of  these,  order,  is  not  onl}^  a  natural,  but  a  spiritual 
principle.  While  we  continue  to  be  imperfect  and  semi- 
sensual  beings,  there  should  be,  surely,  for  such  imperfect 
creatures,  the  orderly  and  invariable  element  in  worship ; 
and  even  with  perfect  spiritual  beings  in  heaven  there 
seems  to  be  the  grand  law  of  order.  This  is  the  same  prin- 
ciple that  manifests  itself  in  the  regular  recurrence  of  the 
"Lord's  day," in  the  periodic  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per, in  the  repetition  of  the  formal  order  of  service,  what- 
ever it  may  be,  in  the  rehearsing  of  the  doxology  and 
benediction.  Liturgical  churches  have  certainly  appreciated 
this  simple  law  of  our  mental  being,  —  order,  uniformity,  — 
and  made  more  of  it  than  we  do.  Their  form  of  worship 
is  a  fixed  quantity.  Might  we  not  also  make  more  use  of  this 
important  principle?  Might  we  not  avail  ourselves  more 
than  we  do  of  the  rich  treasures  of  what  is  old,  — of  praise, 
prayer,  and  song,  gathered  through  the  centuries  of  the 
church's  history, — and  not  have  the  desire  so  strongly,  and 
often  so  painfully,  excited,  to  produce  what  is  new  and  varied 
at  every  service  ?  There  should  be  in  every  form  of  wor- 
ship, however  simple,  some  permanent  basis  ;  something  of 
the  old,  of  the  familiar,  of  the  invariable  ;  some  worn  path 
way  for  the  feet  of  worshippers  to  tread  in.     The  second 


490  PASTORAL,    OFFICE. 

great  principle  is  that  oi  freedom^  or  spontancit}^  which  is 
the  poculiar  glory  and  beauty  of  our  own  form  of  -worship, 
and  which  is  an  essential  element  of  true  worship.  It  is  a 
chief  source  of  its  life  and  power.  Where  there  is  no  free- 
dom of  intercourse  with  God,  no  individuality  of  thought 
or  desire,  no  opportunity  for  the  expression  of  present 
want,  sorrow,  temptation,  thankfulness,  then  how  can  there 
be  living  truth  in  worship,  or  real  communion  established 
between  God  and  the  soul?  The  third  principle  is  union, 
or  communion  —  in  a  word,  the  social  principle,  which 
cannot  for  a  moment  be  lost  sight  of  in  the  great  common 
act  of  public  worship.  When  we  worship  by  ourselves, 
the  more  solitary  we  are,  the  better;  and  we  should  "shut 
to  the  door  "  and  be  alone  with  "  our  Father  which  seeth  in 
secret ; "  but  when  a  multitude  worship  together  in  the 
common  name  of  Christ,  the  principle  of  individualism 
should  merge  itself  into  the  higher  principle  of  Christian 
love  and  communion.  All  that  tends  to  unite  many  hearts 
in  one  act,  to  make  them  flow  together  in  one  devotional 
channel,  aids  true  worship.  It  is  here,  perhaps,  that  the 
greatest  want  of  our  Congregational  form  of  worship  is 
sometimes  felt ;  for  even  in  the  sanctuar}'-  of  our  common 
Lord  we  are  apt  to  remain  too  independent  of  each  other, 
too  individual,  too  much  broken  up  into  separate  fragments. 
One  member  remains  unpenetrated  by  the  feeling  which 
glows  in  the  heart  of  his  next  neighbor,  and  the  whole  mass 
is  not  sufiiciently  fused  together  and  made  one. 

Our  public  religious  services  are  generally  interesting 
and  profitable  in  a  rational  point  of  view,  but  frequently 
they  are  cold,  and  apparently  undevotional.  It  is  often  with 
us  the  idea  of  the  knowledge  of  God,  rather  than  of  the 
love  of  God,  or  of  one  another.  It  is  the  idea  of  edifica- 
tion rather  than  that  of  praise.  We  are  not  saying  that 
there  is  not  as  much  of  pure  devotion  in  our  worship  as  in 
that  of  any  other  body  of  Christian  believers ;  but  we  arc 
noticing  what  might  be  called  some  of  our  deficiencies,  in 


§  38.       THEORY    OF    PUBLIC    WORSHIP.  491 

order  to  draw  the  thousrht  and  attention  of  those  who  are 
coming  on  the  stage,  as  Christian  pastors,  to  this  important 
.  subject,  and  to  the  remedy  of  these  deficiencies,  if  remedy 
r  there  is  to  be  found.  Vinet  says,  "  As  for  us,  our  worship  is 
too  much  a  confession  of  faith  —  a  discourse ;  everything 
is  articulate,  everything  is  precise,  everything  exph\i«is 
itself.  The  effect  of  this  tendency  has  gone  so  far  as  to 
determine  the  idea  we  have  formed  of  temples.  We  regard 
temples  as  a  place  for  hearing.  We  go  to  them  to  hear 
some  one  speak." ^  He  says  again,  "Preaching  has  its  place 
under  the  gospel,  but  it  does  not  suffocate  worship.  Our 
word  is  a  prism  which  decomposes  the  light."  ^  He  means 
by  this,  we  suppose,  that  preaching  is  analytic,  and  ad- 
dressed principally  to  the  intellect ;  whereas  he  would  have 
more  of  simplicity  of  feeling,  contemplation,  and  trust,  in 
worship.  As  to  the  worship  of  the  primitive  church,  Vinet 
says,  "It  seems  to  have  been  a  medium  between  preaching 
and  devotion.  We  see  in  it  nothing  of  the  anxious  precis- 
ion of  a  confession  of  faith,  nothing  of  the  profusion  of 
rites  of  the  Eomish  church."^  These  quotations  show  that 
in  the  worship  of  the  reformed  Swiss  and  French  churches  — 
very  closely  resembling  our  own  —  something  of  the  same 
want  is  evidently  experienced.  This  is  a  profoundly  practi- 
cal question,  for  the  church  of  our  fathers  is  suffering  from 
the  fact,  that  men  of  culture  and  undoubted  piety  some- 
times declare  that  their  sympathies  and  tastes  are  not  wholly 
met  by  our  form  of  worship,  and  hence  they  feel  that  they 
cannot  develop  themselves  or  their  spiritual  life  with  perfect 
freedom  within  our  system.  It  is  easy  to  say,  in  regard  to 
such,  "Let  them  go  ;  they  are  not  of  us,  and  never  can  be  ;  " 
but  all  kinds  of  minds  should  be  considered,  and  their  wants, 
as  far  as  possible,  kindly  appreciated. 

It  is  possible  for  us,  we  think,  to  profit  from  whatever  of 

*:  good  there  is  in  other  forms  of  worship,  even  the  most 
/ 

»  Pastoral  Theology,  p.  180.  '  lb.,  p.  182.  »  lb.,  p.  181. 


^492  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

diverse  from  our  own,  Avithout  losing  our  distinctive  charac- 
teristics, or  believing,  with  Dr.  South,  that  there  is  but  one 
praj'cr  kicking  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer ;  and  that  is, 
that  the  Prayer  Book  should  continue  to  be  used  in  public 
worship  forever ! 

'  It  is  sometimes  said  by  us,  and  oftener,  perhaps,  thought, 
that  there  can  be  little  of  true  worship  under  liturgical  forms, 
because  they  are  nothing  but  forms ;  yet  devout  members 
of  lituro^ical  evancrelical  churches  can  doubtless  maintain  the 
genuine  attractions  of  that  form  of  worship  from  some  such 
reasons  as  these  —  that  their  liturgy  is  fitted  to  meet  the  re- 
ligious sympathies  of  all  classes  of  worshippers,  as  present- 
ing an  embodiment  of  the  great  truths  of  the  Christian  faith, 
such  as  the  incarnation,  the  atonement,  the  resurrection,  re- 
pentance, forgiveness  —  which  hold  up  those  truths  plainly 
to  the  view  of  all,  so  as  to  enkindle  religious  feelings ;  and 
that  in  the  regular  recurrence  of  these  words  of  faith,  and 
of  petitions  for  common  wants,  both  temporal  and  spiritual, 
there  is  devotional  power.  Here  is  the  law  of  uniformity 
of  which  we  have  spoken.  We  talk  of  how  touching  are 
old  hymns,  and  of  the  influence  of  familiar  words  of  the 
Bible,  and  of  the  moving  nature  of  old  scenes  and  places  ; 
and  in  the  same  way  devout  feeling  runs  along  more  easily 
in  familiar  words  of  prayer  and  praise. 

Then  there  is  the  social  element  in  such  worship,  —  the 
diffusion  of  the  social  principle,  —  which  gives  all  something 
to  do,  by  uniting  all  the  congregation  in  the  responses  and 
singing.  We  have  no  doubt  that  many  pious  minds  do  more 
readily  worship  God  in  the  channels  of  these  liturgical 
forms,  w'hen  they  have  been  educated  from  childhood  in 
them,  than  they  could  in  our  mode,  or  in  any  simpler 
mode.  We  are  also  equally  open  to  see  the  marked  defi- 
ciencies of  those  methods  of  worship.  The  liturgical  part 
of  the  service  is  usually  too  long,  especially  in  the  English 
church,  where,  in  the  morning,  there  are,  as  it  were,  three 
services  in  one.     That  does  not  allow  time  for  the  faithful 


§  38.      THEORY  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP.  493 

preaching  of  the  word.  It  thrusts  it  into  a  corner.  It  makes 
it  a  subordinate  thing.  Then,  too,  the  absence  of  the  spon- 
taneous element  is  an  almost  fatal  defect.  This  gives  little 
opportunity  for  spiritual  growth,  for  the  expression  of  new 
truth,  or  fresh  feeling,  and  for  the  satisfying  of  the  present 
emergency.  It  fixes  the  mind  on  the  past  —  on  the  faith  of 
the  founders  of  the  church,  or  of  the  makers  of  the  liturgy. 
It  tends  to  narrow  the  religious  life,  and  to  lead  it  to  feel 
the  want  of  no  more  reliijion  than  can  be  found  in  the  forms 
of  prayer.  And  there  is,  above  all,  the  temptation  to  rest 
in  the  written  form,  and  to  think  that  when  the  prescribed 
words  of  devotion  are  uttered,  and  the  service  gone  through 
with,  one  has  truly  worshipped,  and  the  duty  is  accom- 
plished —  that  one  has  done  his  devotions.  As  a  matter  of 
taste,  also,  while  the  responses  and  chants  arc  extremely 
devotional,  and  have,  moreover,  the  authority  of  gi-eat  anti- 
quity (even  Justin  Martyr  himself  speaks  of  an  ancient 
litany  being  responded  to  by  the  people) ,  the  practice  of 
alternate  readings  of  the  Scriptures  is  confusing ;  neverthe- 
less, may  we  not  at  least  study  with  profit  liturgical  forms 
of  worship  for  propriety,  dignity,  solemnity,  the  rich  flavor 
of  antiquity,  and  the  social  element? 

This  is  not  the  place,  nor  have  we  space,  to  take  up  the 
actual  question  as  to  the  best  methods  of  increasing  the  life, 
interest,  and  fervor  of  our  worship,  and  of  supplying  its 
more  marked  deficiencies.  Other  churches  besides  our  own 
have  felt  the  same  difficulties ;  and  some  efibrts  have  been 
made  to  meet  them.  Here  and  there,  for  example,  a 
Presbyterian  church  has  introduced  a  liturgical  form ;  and 
it  might  consistently  do  so,  for  the  Presbyterian  worship 
was,  at  one  time,  liturgical;  the  prayer  book  of  Edv\^ard 
VI.  was  anciently  used  in  Scotland,  and  by  John  Knox 
himself,  with  some  modifications  permitted  by  Archbishop 
Cranmer ;  and  at  the  time  of  the  Restoration,  leading  Presby- 
terian divines  — among  them  Richard  Baxter  —  presented 
an  address  to  the  throne,  to  the  pui'porrtliat  they  were  satis- 
42 


494  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

fied  that  a  liturgy  might  be  used,  if  it  were  conformable 
to  the  word  of  God,  and  were  not  too  rigorously  imposed. 
This  was  assented  to,  and  an  equal  number  of  Presbyterians 
and  Episcopalians  were  appointed  to  consider  the  matter ; 
and  the  prayer  book,  as  amended  at  that  time,  actually 
passed  ,the  English  Parliament,  and  came  very  near  being 
adopted  by  the  Presbyterian  church  in  England,  and  after- 
ward in  America. 

Something  similar  to  a  liturgy  has  likewise  been  intro- 
duced into  many  Congregational  churches  in  this  country 
and  in  England ;  but  although  Congregational  churches 
would  have  perfect  liberty  to  adopt  a  liturgy  if  they  chose 
to  do  so,  3'et  it  must  be  said  that,  historically  speaking,  a 
written  and  prescribed  liturgy  seems  to  be  opposed  to  the 
original  form  and  spirit  of  the  Congregational  church. 

In  Elizabeth's  reign,  the  worship,  as  well  as  the  polity,  of 
the  church,  of  all  bodies  of  the  church,  even  of  the  Puritan 
body  at  that  time,  was  liturgical.  The  original  Puritans, 
though  opposed  to  Popish  rites  and  ceremonies,  were  not 
opposed  to  prescribed  forms  of  public  prayer.  The  ground 
they  took  was  this,  as  set  forth  in  these  formal  objections 
to  the  English  Established  church  (Neal's  History  of  the 
Puritans,  Part  I.  p.  106)  :  "  Fifthly,  Though  they  did  not 
dispute  the  lawfulness  of  set  forms  of  prayer,  provided  a 
due  liberty  was  allowed  for  prayers  of  their  own  composure 
before  and  after  sermon,  yet  they  disliked  some  things  in 
the  public  liturgy  established  by  law ;  as  the  frequent  repe- 
tition of  the  Lord's  prayer,  the  interruption  of  the  prayers 
by  the  frequent  responses  of  the  people,  which,  in  some 
places,  seem  to  be  little  better  than  vain  repetitions,  and 
are  practised  by  no  other  Protestant  church  in  the  world ; " 
and  also  (Part  I.  p.  122)  in  the  apology  of  two  prominent 
Puritan  divines,  who  were  imprisoned  for  non-conformity. 
"Concerning  public  worship,  we  hold  that  there  ought  to  be 
places  appointed  for  this  purpose,  and  that  there  may  be 
a  prescript  form  of  prayer  and  service  in  the  known  tongue, 


§  38.      THEORY   OF   PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  495 

because  all  have  not  the  gift  of  prayer ;  but  we  would  not 
have  it  patched  out  of  the  pope's  prescriptions ;  but  be  the 
form  of  prayer  never  so  good,  we  affirm  that  ministers 
may  not  think  themselves  discharged  when  they  have  said 
it  over,  for  they  are  not  sent  to  say  service,  but  to  preach 
deliverance  through  Christ :  preaching,  therefore,  must  not 
be  thrust  out  of  doors  for  reading.  Neither  ought  minis- 
ters so  to  be  tied  to  a  prescript  form  of  prayer  that  at  all 
times  he  must  be  bound,  of  necessity,  to  use  it ;  for  who 
can  draw  a  form  of  prayer  necessary  for  all  times,  and  fit 
for  all  congregations  ?  We  deny  not  that  there  be  various 
manners  of  prayers,  but  we  must  take  heed  that  they  be 
not  long  and  tedious ;  wherefore  preaching,  as  it  is  the 
chief  part  of  a  minister's  office,  so  all  other  things  must  give 
place  to  it." 

The  true  Congregationalists,  who  broke  off  from  the  great 
Puritan  body,  who  were  "the  Puritans  of  the  Puritans," 
and  from  whom  we  in  New  England  were  descended,  went, 
as  it  seems  to  ns,  farther  than  this,  and  made  a  point  on 
this  very  matter  of  using  prescribed  forms  of  prayer,  al- 
though we  do  not  find  it  laid  down  in  so  mau}^  words  in 
any  definite  forunila  or  standard  of  the  Congregational 
church. 

In  giving  an  account  of  English  Independency,  Neal 
says  (Part  IV.  p.  492),  "  Their  method  of  public  worship  in 
Holland  was  the  same  with  other  Protestants  :  they  read 
the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  in  their 
assemblies,  and  expounded  them  on  proper  occasions ;  they 
ofiered  up  public  and  solemn  prayers  for  kings  and  all  in 
authority  ;  and  though  they  did  not  approve  of  a  prescribed 
form,  they  admitted  that  public  prayer  in  their  assemblies 
ought  to  be  framed  by  the  meditation  and  study  of  their 
ministers,  as  well  as  their  sermons."  The  distiuguished 
Independent  minister  Barrowes  argued  eloquently  against 
set  forms  of  prayer ;  and  this  same  Henry  Barrowes  and 
John  Greenwood,    Cambridge   graduates  and   conspicuous 


496  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

ConoTe""ationalists,  were  imprisoned  on  the  specific  charge 
of  opposition  to  the  prayer  book  as  a  form  of  public  wor- 
ship. 

Cotton  Mather,  in  his  Ratio  Disciplinoe  (p.  46-52),  says, 
"  The  New  England  churches  have  no  liturgy  composed  for 
them,  much  less  imposed  upon  them ;  our  Saviour  and  his 
apostles  never  provided  any  prayer  book  but  the  Bible  for 
us.  The  first  planters  hoped  that  the  second  coming  of 
our  Saviour  will  arrive  before  there  will  be  received  among 
them  any  liher  officialis  (book  of  authority)  but  the  sacred 
Scriptures."  John  Cotton  also  reasoned  against  liturgies, 
or  "  stinted  and  set  forms  of  prayer." 

Early  Congregationalists  acted  on  the  principle  that 
everything  that  was  not  required  by  the  Scriptures  w^as  in 
the  nature  of  "will-worship,"  as  they  termed  it.  They 
'  undoubtedly  carried  that  too  far ;  but  it  goes  to  show 
what  primitive  Congregationalism  really  was.  We,  surely, 
are  not  bound  rigidly  to  carry  out  to  the  letter  all  the  ideas 
and  usages  of  the  Congregational  fathers,  since  they  were 
but  men ;  but  can  we  adopt  an  essentially  liturgical  form 
of  w^orship,  and  remain  true  historical  Congregationalists? 
Congregationalism  was,  in  its  origin,  a  protest  against 
human  prescription  and  formalism  in  religious  things,  and 
it  had  no  written  form  of  worship  any  more  than  it  had  a 
written  creed  or  church  polity  ;  and  whatever  written  forms 
it  now  has  are  merely  the  collected  memorials  and  prece- 
dents of  the  usages  of  the  churches.  It  is,  in  spirit,  an  en- 
tirely free  system,  and  no  written  form  in  any  particular, 
not  even  one  forbidding  liturgical  worship,  can  be  pointed 
out  as  ruling  over  the  freedom  of  the  churches.  It  would 
seem,  then,  that  we  must  come  unavoidably  to  these  general 
conclusions  :  that  our  present  Congregational  form  of  wor- 
ship, simple  as  it  is,  is  a  true  historic  cultus;  also,  that, 
as  nothing  human  is  perfect,  our  form  of  worship,  like 
others,  may,  in  some  respects,  be  incomplete ;  may  lack 
some  subordinate  elements  of  power ;  may  still  be  open,  hero 


§  38.      THEORY   or   PUBLIC   WORSHIP.  497 

and  there,  to  improvement,  or,  at  least,  to  development, 
without  at  the  same  time  losing  its  distinctive  character- 
istics. 

And  the  final  question  then  comes :  Is  there  no  way,  in 
harmony  with  its  own  history  and  spirit,  by  which  our 
system  of  worship  may  supply  its  deficiencies,  enrich  its 
barrenness,  round  out  and  complete  its  simple  ritual,  give 
unity,  fulness,  and  vitality  to  its  public  worship  of  God,  not 
in  an  aesthetic  sense  merely,  or  as  lending  outward  attrac- 
tiveness, but  as  afibrding  a  true  medium  to  the  spiritual 
devotion  of  the  people?  In  other  words,  the  question  is, 
whether,  in  an  essentially  unliturgical  form  of  worship,  the 
elements  of  power,  truth,  and  beauty,  that  a  liturgical  form 
may  possess,  cannot  be  equally  secured,  and  the  evils  which 
are  wrapped  up  in  a  liturgical  form  be,  at  the  same  time, 
avoided  ?  This  is  the  interesting  and  difficult  question,  which 
—  in  the  presence  of  an  advancing  civilization,  of  a  more 
general  cultivation  of  the  aesthetic  sense,  of  the  power  of  the 
human  element,  which  is  making  itself  more  and  more  felt  in 
religious  things,  of  the  lowering  of  the  high  tone  of  primitive 
piety,  or  its  assuming  of  other  phases  that  are  apparently 
a  decay  of  the  highest  spiritual  life — the  Congregational 
churches  of  New  England  and  the  West  are  to  meet  and 
work  out. 

We  believe  that  improvements  will  be  made,  if  made  at 
all,  in  our  form  of  worship,  not  by  hastily  introduced  nov- 
elties which  obtain  no  general  introduction  into  the  churches, 
but  by  changes  that  come  from  the  development  of  true 
liturgicar principles,  and  that  rest  on  enlarged  ideas  of  reli- 
gious wants  in  worship.  Without  being  able  to  enter  into 
this  question,  we  would  venture  to  offer  a  few  simple  sug- 
gestions, having  reference  chiefly  to  pastors,  which  might, 
in  the  mean  time,  go  a  little  way  to  supply  defects,  and  to 
fill  up  some  of  the  felt  deficiencies  of  our  Congregational 
worship. 

(1.)  Pastors,  in  whose  hands  the  public  devotions  are  so 
42* 


498  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

exclusively  left,  should  receive  a  more  thorough  liiiQ^gical 
preparation,  and  should  diligently  cultivate  themselves  in 
that  respect.  The  culture  of  the  spirit  of  devotion,  and  of 
the  gift  of  fit  expression  in  praj^er,  is  a  necessary  part  of  a 
minister's  qualifications,  as  a  leader  of  public  prayer.  He 
should  deeply  meditate  upon  the  best  forms  of  public 
prayer.  He  should  study  the  oldest  liturgies  of  the  church. 
He  should  avail  himself  of  them,  and  endeavor  to  catch 
something  of  their  earnest  spirit.  He  should  endeavor  to 
infuse  more  of  the  rich  devotional  element  into  all  the  pub- 
lic service  of  God.  He  should  feel  himself  to  be  simply  a 
servant,  an  aider  of  the  people  in  religious  things,  keeping 
to  himself  his  individualities,  and  striving  to  have  the  spirit- 
ual element,  the  divine  element,  predominate  in  the  public 
services.  In  the  wording  of  his  prayer,  the  choice  and 
reading  of  hymns,  the  selections  from  Scripture,  the  general 
oversight  of  the  church  music,  and  in  all  things  relating  to 
the  more  strictly  devotional  part  of  the  service,  he  should 
make  a  careful  preparation,  fall  as  much  so  as  for  his  ser- 
mon. He  may  thus  form  a  liturgy  that  shall  combine  order 
with  freedom,  simplicity  with  fervor. 

(2.)  TJie  cultivation  of  a  reverential  spirit  in  the  people. 
The  inward  spirit  of  devotion  is  the  principal  thing ;  but 
whatever  tends  to  increase  this  spirit  should  be  carefully 
regarded,  especially  among  young  people.  Even  the  outward 
form  of  devotion  in  the  house  of  God  ;  the  ""uardinsr  a2:ainst 
all  irreverent  acts  or  looks  ;  the  devout  attention  given  to  all 
parts  of  public  service  ;  the  idea  manifesting  itself  in  every 
way  that  it  is  a  great  thing  to  come  into  the  presence  of  God, 
and  worship  him  ;  the  respect  shown  to  holy  things,  —  even 
these  external  matters  should  be  duly  cared  for. 

There  should  be  more  attention  paid  by  the  congregation 
to  a  uniform  reverent  posture  in  the  house  of  God,  all 
standing  (as  was  the  ancient  Christian  custom  on  Sunday) 
during  prayer,  or  else  all  kneeling  or  bowing,  and  the 
avoidance  of  all  indecent  haste  in  concluding  any  service, 


§  39.      THE   SANCTUARY.  499 

and  iu  leaving  the  sanctuary.  In  connection  with  this,  a  pure 
and  sanctified  taste  in  all  that  relates  to  the  house  of  God 
itself  should  not  be  considered  as  useless.  Worship  is 
not,  indeed,  "one  of  the  fine  arts,"  any  more  than  preaching, 
or  religion  is,  but  worship  should  clothe  itself  in  the  most 
appropriate  and  beautiful  forms. 

(3.)  The  cultivation  of  the  social  princi^ole  in  loorship. 
Everything  that  has  a  tendency  to  increase  the  social  spirit, 
and  to  j)roduce  real  Christian  communion,  should  be  pro- 
moted; and  ]3erhaps  nothing  is  more  potent  than  music  — 
than  congregational  singing  —  to  bring  souls  into  harmony. 
The  responsive  reading  of  the  Psalms,  as  constituting  the 
most  ancient  scriptural  liturgy,  has  been  commended  for 
the  purpose  of  harmonizing  the  congregation  in  worship  — 
of  giving  them  a  part  to  perform  in  the  service,  and  of 
awakening  a  deeper  glow  of  devotional  feeling. 

There  may  be  also  the  judicious  introduction  of  anthems, 
and  the  chanting  of  psalms,  to  increase  the  legitimate  at- 
tractions of  public  worship  and  the  spirit  of  devotion. 

(3.)  The  reading,  as  in  the  primitive  church,  of  more,  and 
of  the  more  devotional  portions,  of  the  Bible — of  the  Psalms, 
and  the  prophets,  and  the  spiritual  parts  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment; and  added  to  this  the  practice  of  a  simple,  spiritual 
style  of  preaching,  filled  with  the  spirit  of  Christ,  so  that 
this  may  be  also  a  devotional  part  of  public  worship  —  that 
it  may  have  for  its  end  to  awaken  in  the  soul  the  supreme 
affection  for  God. 

(5.)  The  revival  of  pure  faith,  the  baptism  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  of  fire,  which  would  bring  into  our  churches  a 
new  spirit  of  consecration,  of  joy  in  the  worship  of  God,  of 
delight  iu  his  praise. 

§  39.     The  Sanctuary. 

We  have  spoken  generally  of  the  theory  and  form  of  pub- 
lic worship,  but  something  of  a  more  particular  character 


500  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

seems  needful  to  be  said  in  relation  to  the  offices  of  the 
"house  of  God,"  where  the  pastor,  on  every  "Lord's  da}^" 
conducts  the  public  services  of  his  flock ;  for  he  is  not  only 
the  instructor  of  their  consciences,  but  the  leader  of  their 
devotions.  We  are  obliged  to  omit  the  discussion  of  "  the 
Lord's  cZay"  itself ;  and  also,  for  want"  of  space,  we  must 
pass  over  the  consideration  of  the  fit  administration  of  the 
Sacraments,  which  are,  in  some  very  interesting  aspects,  true 
rites  of  worship.  "We  would  lay  down,  for  pastoral  sugges- 
tion and  guidance,  two  or  three  simple  principles  in  regard 
to  the  character  of  the  sanctuary  services,  although  they  may 
seem  to  repeat  what  has  been  already  said. 

(1.)    They  should  be  regidarly  held  in  one  place. 

This  is  in  harmony  with  the  laws  of  our  nature,  and  not 
inconsistent  with  the  Scriptures.^  Although  a  superstitious 
reverence  for  places  is  done  away  by  Christianity,  and  the 
temple  is  the  soul  itself,  yet  the  regular  local  sanctuary  is 
both  needful  and  in  accordance  with  Christian  precedent 
from  the  earliest  times  until  now.^  When  we  are  on  a  jour- 
ney, or  at  war,  we  can  worship  in  a  tent,  or  under  a  green 
tree  ;  but  at  home  we  require  a  religious  as  well  as  a  domes- 
tic sanctuary.  It  is  the  pastor's  duty,  as  far  as  he  can  have 
any  control  in  this,  to  see  that  the  sanctuary  is  a  place 
proper  for  the  public  worship  of  God ;  that  it  is  not  used 
for  secular  purposes ;  that  it  is  at  least  neat  and  commodi- 
ous ;  and  that,  according  to  the  means  of  the  people,  it  is 
attractive  and  in  good  taste. 

If  a  new  house  of  worship  is  to  be  built,  and  if  the  peo- 
ple are  able  to  incur  the  expense  without  incurring  a  debt, 
it  should  be,  we  think,  whether  large  or  small,  a  solid,  perma- 
nent structure,  —  better  of  stone,  — in  order  that  the  hallow- 
ing associations  of  ages  may  cluster  about  it.  It  should  be 
well  suited  for  the  purposes  of  public  worship,  of  seeing  and 

'  Deut.  12  :  1-7 ;  John  18  :  2 ;  Acts  2  :  1 ;  1  Cor.  11 :  20. 
"  Pliny's  letter.     See  Mosheim's  History  of  Christianity  of  the  First  Three 
Centuries,  vol.  i.  p.  125. 


§  39.      THE   SANCTUARY.  501 

hearing  well,  of  aiding,  not  destroying,  the  sympathy  which 
should  exist  between  preacher  and  people  ;  and,  these  condi- 
tions fulfilled,  it  ought  to  be  in  good  taste  architecturally,  for 
it  is  a  school  wherein  to  educate  the  sentiments,  as  well  as  to 
instruct  the  conscience.  The  Gothic  architecture  may,  pos- 
sibly, hereafter  be  surpassed  and  superseded  by  some  other 
style  ;  but  as  an  ecclesiastical  architecture,  combining  the  im- 
pression of  sacred  awe  with  a  certain  vagueness  that  belongs 
to  spiritual  ideas,  it  has  not  yet  been  equalled.  It  can  be 
modified  and  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  Protestant  worship ; 
and  as  it  sprang  originally  from  a  religious  idea,  and  all  its 
lines  point  upward  and  carry  the  thoughts  with  them,  it 
seems,  in  an  sesthetic  point  of  view,  better  fitted  for  educa- 
tional purposes,  than  the  horizontal,  low,  and  earth-bound 
lines  of  classic  architecture  ;  but  this  is  purely  a  matter  of 
taste.  It  is  altogether  a  secondary  matter ;  for  "  The  God 
that  made  the  world  and  all  things  that  are  therein,  the  same 
being  already  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  settleth  not  down 
in  hand-made  temples."^  The  building  of  exceedingly 
costly  and  elaborately  architectural  churches,  of  imitation- 
cathedrals,  by  our  own  denomination,  is,  we  think,  uncalled 
for.  It  is  contrary  to  our  spirit  and  our  simple  ritual,  and 
it  reveals  no  settled  principle,  nor  true  conception  of  reli- 
gious art,  whose  whole  beauty  consists  in  adaptation  to  the 
idea,  the  design,  and  the  place ;  for  beauty  here  has  a  vital 
relation  to  religious  wants.  We  believe  that  the  time  will 
come  when  true  art,  of  whatever  kind,  will  find  its  free  place 
and  proper  use,  in  Christian  worship  and  faith,  as  a  humble 
but  beautiful  handmaid  of  religion. 

The  house  should  be  built  and  paid  for  by  voluntary  sub- 
scription, chiefly  of  the  wealthy ;  and  if  a  community  is 
abundantly  able  to  build  such  a  good,  ample,  solid,  and 
chastely-beautiful  edifice,  for  the  use  of  both  rich  and  poor,  it 
should  surely  do  so ;  it  should  furnish  a  fit  and  commodious 

'  Conybeare  and  Howson's  translation. 


502  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

sanctuary  for  the  benefit  of  all  classes,  and  with  a  low  rental 
of  seats.  It  should  not  be  a  place  for  the  rich  alone,  for  "  a 
foshionable  church,"  as  it  is  called,  is  "an  abomination  to 
the  Lord  ; "  but  it  should  be  a  place  for  rich  and  poor  to  sit 
together,  and  for  the  poor  to  feel  a  right  to  be  there,  be- 
cause they,  too,  bear  some  small  part  of  the  expense,  or 
have  an  opportunity  to  pay  a  low  rent  Avithin  their  means. 
This  system,  combining  good  taste  and  permanence  with 
cheapness  and  reasonableness  in  the  price  of  seats,  is  better 
than  very  costly  churches  exclusively  for  the  rich,  with 
mission  chapels  for  the  poor  ;  or  than  entirely  free  churches  ; 
or  than  big  ''tabernacles,"  which  require  a  rare  popular 
orator  to  fill  them,  and  which,  unfilled,  are  w^astes  of  soli- 
tude. 

The  glory  of  a  church  is  to  be  full  —  full  of  glad  wor- 
shippers ;  and  the  most  beautiful  symbolism,  the  most  fit 
external  forms,  are  dead,  and  worse,  if  they  are  not  aids 
and  expressions  of  true  spiritual  life.  Therefore,  if  neces- 
sary, rather  than  that  the  church  should  not  be  full.  Chris- 
tians should  go  out  into  the  highways  and  hedges,  and 
gather  in  the  poor  and  the  outcast.  The  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity is  to  seeh  such,  not  to  wait  for  them  to  seek  Christian- 
ity, or  to  come  to  the  church,  which  they  never  will  do. 
Within  the  church  itself,  the  seats  of  honor,  if  there  are 
such,  should  be  given  to  the  aged  and  to  the  "elders"  of  the 
church ;  or  the  congregation  should  be  ecclesiastically,  not 
pecuniarily,  arranged.  The  church  and  society  should  be 
brought  to  feel  (and  the  pastor's  responsibility  lies  here) 
that  a  selfish  property  interest  in  the  sanctuary,  as  in  a  ware- 
house, is  an  unchristian  sentiment  — that  the  sanctuary  is  for 
the  good  of  all,  and  belongs  to  all;  and  there  should  be  an 
earnest  desire  that  all  should  be  provided  with  good  seats, 
even  to  the  inconvenience  of  some.  Christians  should  let  it 
be  understood  that  their  church,  be  it  in  town  or  country, 
is  the  religious  home  of  the  whole  community,  of  all  who 
wish  to  come — that  there  are  noplaces  in  it  to  be  un- 


§   39.       THE    SANCTUAEY.  503 

occupied.  Let  the  pastor  bring  his  people  up  to  the  work 
of  filling  God's  house  with  the  poor  and  humble,  and  of 
looking  less  to  their  private  interests  and  tastes  than  to  the 
general  good. 

2.  Tliey  should  he  conducted  ^^  decently  and  in  order.''^ 
This  is  the  inj  unction  of  Scripture  and  of  right  feeling. 

There  should  be  some  prearranged  form,  whatever  it  may 
be,  so  that  there  may  be  no  confusion,  delay,  haste.  Order 
conduces  to  solemnity.  "  Order  preserves  reciprocity  of 
action,  the  unity  of  manifoldness  and  development."^  But 
while  thus  orderly,  the  services  should  not  be  mechanical 
or  inflexible ;  there  should  be  in  them  the  spirit  of  free- 
dom. They  should  not  be  so  formal,  so  prescribed,  so 
rigid,  as  that  there  can  be  no  production  of  new  power  and 
fresh  feeling.  As  has  been  hinted,  the  pastor  should  study 
the  ancient  liturgies,  and  derive  suggestions  from  them. 
The  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  which  our  fathers  set  aside, 
is  still,  in  many  respects,  a  treasury  of  liturgical  sugges- 
tions and  instruction,  embodying  much  of  the  liturgical 
element  that  has  run  through  the  whole  history  of  the 
church.  There  is  certainly  great  beauty  in  the  order  of  its 
l^rayers  and  services.  (1.)  The  silent  dedicatory  prayer 
on  entering  the  sanctuary,  humbly  acknowledging  the  holy 
presence  of  God  searching  the  heart.  (2.)  The  confession 
of  sin.  (3.)  The  prayer  for  absolution  and  pardon.  (4.) 
The  Lord's  prayer.  (5.)  The  invocation  for  the  aid  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  (6.)  The  song  of  praise  —  the  Te  Deum. 
(7.)  The  creed.  (8.)  The  reading  of  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  Epistles.  (9.)  The  sermon.  (10.)  The  con- 
cluding prayers. 

3.  They  should  be  co^nmon. 

Public  worship  is  "common  worship" — the  worship  of 
many  together.  If,  as  political  economists  tell  us,  self-love 
is  the  bond  of  society,  the  love  of  all  is  the  bond  of  the 

'  Nitzsch,  System  of  Chr.  Doc,  §  194,  p.  357. 


504  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

church.  Nitzsch  says,  "The  condition  of  living  and  true 
fellowship  which  Christians  shall  have,  in  the  Lord,  with 
each  other,  and  with  the  past  and  future  church,  is  common 
prayer,  in  accordance  with  the  word  of  God.  (Matt.  18  :  20. 
Compare  Acts  2  :  42,  4  :  24.)  A  community  continually 
oiFering  up  thanksgiving  and  supplications,  can  never  cease 
to  intercede  for  the  magistracy,  the  people,  and  the  world, 
with  which  it  is  connected.  (1  Tim.  2  :  1.)  The  more  a 
congregation  prays  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  the  truer  it  be- 
comes, and,  as  true,  is  always  heard.  Individuals  ought  to 
submit  to  all  the  discipline  of  the  Spirit,  and  to  all  external 
order  requisite  for  their  attaining  a  more  and  more  common 
prayer.  (1  Cor.  14  ;  Ephes.  5  :  19.)  If  they  are  bound  to 
cherish  their  assemblies,  they  are  equally  bound  to  conse- 
crate them  in  communion."^  Again  he  says,  "Communion 
opposes  the  predominance  of  individualism."  There  should 
be  in  public  worship  nothing  which  shuts  out  any  class  of 
persons,  or  any  person,  from  its  enjoyment ;  but  there 
should  be  a  common  platform,  on  which  all  can  stand  —  a 
common  feeling,  in  which  all  can  share.  Of  course  this 
communion  in  Christian  worship  is  not  a  mere  social  fellow- 
ship, a  mere  natural  genial  feeling  of  sympathy,  desirable 
as  this  is,  but  it  is  a  fellowship  in  religious  things.  There- 
fore there  will  be,  probably,  those  in  every  congregation 
who  do  not,  in  heart,  join  in  the  services ;  and  yet  the  ser- 
vices should  be  such  that  they  all  may  join. 

And  the  pastor  should  not  confine  himself,  in  the  exercises 
of  public  worship,  to  any  particular  class  —  saj'^  older  per- 
sons, or  even  professed  believers.  The  services  of  God's 
house  should  be  so  conducted  that  all  persons  may  be  com- 
prehended and  benefited,  and  every  one  have  his  portion 
in  due  season. 

This  opens  an  interesting  and  difficult  question,  as  to  the 
theory  of  a  Christian  congregation^  in  the  conduct  of  public 

'  System  of  Chr.  Doc,  p.  357. 


§   39.       THE    SANCTUARY.  505 

worship.  Schleiermacher's  views  on  this  point,  although 
independent  and  peculiar,  are  at  least  worth  considering. 
They  are  noticed  in  Dr.  Liicke's  sketch  of  his  life.  (p.  53.) 
Dr.  Liicke  says,  "  But,  on  the  other  hand,  I  might  declare 
that  it  has  always  afforded  me  special  gratification,  and  has 
appeared  to  me  exceedingly  praiseworthy,  when  Schleier- 
macher  has  mounted  the  pulpit  with  the  magnanimous 
assumption  of  his  believing  and  aflectionate  soul,  that  he 
found  the  Christian  congregation,  as  such,  already  estab- 
lished and  gathered  together  by  the  Lord  and  his  spirit,  and 
that  he  was  not  called  to  the  ^^^i  jilanting  of  their  faith,  but 
rather  to  the  watering  of  that  which  was  already  planted. 
Schleiermacher  did  not  overlook  the  different  stages  of 
knowledge  and  piety  which  exist  in  a  congregation ;  he 
took  good  notice  of  states  that  are  defective.  But  (in 
preaching)  he  always  assumed,  as  the  starting-point,  a  cer- 
tain average  measure  of  Christian  faith  and  life  as  existing 
in  the  congregation.  In  an  age  in  which  there  are  so  many 
who  deal  with  Christian  congregations  as  if  the  work  of 
redemption  and  regeneration  had  not  yet  found  a  beginning 
in  them,  either  consciously  or  unconsciously,  or  as  if  it  had 
every  Sunday  to  be  commenced  anew,  and  by  this  perverse 
feshion,  weary  and  exasperate,  rather  than  elevate  and 
gladden,  Schleiermacher's  opposite  peculiarity  is  only  a 
matter  of  praise." 

The  pastor,  in  his  preaching  and  sanctuary  services,  may 
not  assume  to  take  the  place  of  God,  and  divide  his  congre- 
gation formally  into  the  sheep  and  goats,  or  to  denote 
any  one  in  particular  in  the  assembly  as  having  no  right  to 
join  in  the  spiritual  worship  of  God's  house  ;  for  how  can 
he  look  into  the  heart?  His  duty  is  to  ''hold forth  thett^ord 
of  life"  io  all;  to  show  what  true  ftiith  is,  and  what  un- 
belief and  unpardoned  sin  are  ;  and  each  one  may  judge  of 
his  own  heart.  The  pastor  should  preach  for  all  and  pray 
for  all;  he  should  preach  truthfully,  searchingly,  but  not 
invidiously,  or  with  narrow  personality.  He  should  com- 
43 


506  PASTOKAL   OFFICE. 

prehcnd  all  in  the  present  possibilities  of  mercy  —  in  the 
wide  arms  of  Christian  love.  The  further  question  here 
arises,  Should  a  preacher  address  one  sermon  entirely  to  the 
believing  and  one  entirely  to  the  unbelieving?  It  may  be 
that  sometimes  this  is  absolutely  necessary ;  the  subject  or 
the  occasion  may  require  it ;  but  as  a  general  rule  it  is 
better  in  every  sermon,  viewing  it  as  a  part  of  common 
worship,  or  as  belonging  to  all,  to  try  to  have  something 
in  it,  or  to  develop  something  from  it,  fitted  to  benefit  all 
classes  of  hearers.  Every  true  Christian  needs  to  be  ad- 
monished on  all  subjects  that  the  impenitent  need  to  hear, 
because  he  is  still  imperfect  in  all  these  points ;  and  every 
impenitent  man,  on  the  other  hand,  can  learn  something 
from  what  is  said  to  believers,  because  he  thus  discovers 
what  the  higher  life  is,  and  a  desire  may  be  awakened  to 
secure  it  for  himself. 

Upon  the  true  theory  of  a  Christian  congregation  as  con- 
nected with  the  services  of  the  sanctuary,  Vinet  has  some 
interesting  remarks.      (Pas.  Theol.,  p.  204.) 

4.    They  should  be  edifying. 

This  is  the  preacher's  golden  opportunity  to  build  up  the 
people  in  the  most  holy  faith.  Truth,  not  dogma,  should 
be  preached,  and  in  every  manner  set  forth.  All  the  parts 
of  the  services  should  contain  divine  nutriment.  The  faith- 
ful manifestation  of  Christ  in  the  sanctuary  has  ever  been 
accompanied  by  the  teaching  and  converting  power  of  God. 
Henry  Melville  has  a  sermon  upon  "  God's  way  in  the  Sanc- 
tuary "  (Sermons,  vol.  i.,  p.  403),  in  which  his  aim  is  to 
show  that  God  rules  in  all  the  services  of  his  sanctuary ; 
that  he  uses  his  truth  there  set  forth  in  his  own  way,  or  he 
uses  what  portions  of  it  he  pleases,  for  the  conversion 
and  sanctification  of  souls.  ^, 

Indeed,  it  is  very  rare  that  a  sermon  is  received  as  a 
whole  by  any  one  of  the  congregation ;  but  a  thought,  a 
remark,  a  sentence,  runs  and  glances  hither  and  thither, 
like  quicksilver,  through  the  hearts  of  an  assembly.     The 


§  39.       THE    SANCTUAEY.  507 

pastor,  having  endeavored  to  find  out  the  real  wants  of 
his  people,  should  try  to  supply  them  all.  "TFe  are  debtors 
hotli  to  the  wise  and  the  unwise ; "  and  as  the  unwise  form 
sometimes  a  large  class  of  the  congregation,  one  should  be 
careful  how  he  preaches  exclusively  to  the  instructed,  or 
wise  {die  Gebildete.) 

Let  us  give  up  our  scholarly  ideals,  and  cast  them  to  the 
winds,  if  they  stand  in  the  way  of  bur  coming  to  the  people's 
true  wants  and  hearts,  of  exciting  a  real  interest  on  their 
part. 

Edward  Irving  spoke  of  the  teaching  of  ministers  in  these 
words :  "  They  should  prepare  for  teaching  gypsies,  barge- 
men, miners,  by  apprehending  their  way  of  conceiving  of 
things ;  and  why  not  also  prepare  for  teaching  imaginative 
men,  and  scientific  men,  who  bear  the  Avorld  in  hand?"  He 
went  astray,  doubtless,  in  his  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures  ; 
but  as  a  preacher  and  leader,  or  prince,  in  the  worship  of 
God's  house,  in  which  and  for  which  he  lived,  there  is  much 
to  be  learned  from  his  life.  While  impressed  with  the  idea 
of  conducting  the  worship,  in  its  outward  forms,  with  a 
certain  majestic  solemnity  and  order,  his  heart  seemed  to 
expand  at  such  seasons,  taking  in  all,  and  yearning  over 
them  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  to  instruct,  nourish, 
and  save  them.  The  great  quality  of  preaching,  when  re- 
garded simply  as  an  act  of  w^orship,  as  part  of  the  services 
of  the  sanctuar}^  is  unction^  or  that  which  is  communicated 
to  it  by  the  spirit  of  Christ,  and  which  shows  itself  in  the 
preacher's  desire  to  make  his  preaching  and  the  whole  ser- 
vice conducive  to  the  spiritual  life  of  all,  and  to  the  praise 
of  God.  Thus  the  service  should  be  drawn  from  God  and 
return  to  him,  as  the  word  which  goes  forth  and  comes 
back  to  its  author ;  it  should  not  be  a  purely  human  effort, 
standing  by  itself,  and  apart  from  God,  but  should  proceed 
from  the  word,  the  spirit,  the  love  of  God. 

For  the  services  of   the  sanctuary  to  be  thus  edifying, 
should  not  be  too  long.     Eeligious  interest  and  elevation  of 


508  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

feelin""  cannot  be  kept  up  beyond  a  certain  point,  since  the 
power  of  receptivity  is  a  measure  of  tlie  power  of  produc- 
tion. The  services  should  not  go  on  to  repletion  or  exhaus- 
tion. While  all  are  fed,  the  people  should  feel  that  there 
was  ample  provision  left  in  God's  house  for  all  wants. 
There  should  be  reserved  power  and  reserved  feeling  in  the 
j  services.  These,  with  perhaps  exceptional  periods,  should 
be  even,  simple,  nutritive,  instead  of  being  protracted  and 
unnaturally  exciting.  They  should  have  less  mental  ex- 
haustion and  more  spiritual  interest  on  the  part  of  both 
pastor  and  people,  than  are  sometimes  thought  needful. 

5.   They  should  be  genuinely  devotional. 

Let  the  order  be  irregular,  the  teachings  be  illiterate,  but 
the  heart  will  save  all ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  devo- 
tional element  is  absent  from  the  sanctuarj'  services,  there  is 
the  form  without  the  life.  The  pastor  should  not  enter  the 
sanctuary  to  lead  in  its  sacred  services  without  some  prep- 
aration of  spirit,  without  having  steeped  his  own  soul  in 
prayer ;  and  thus  he  may  come  to  his  people  with  his  face 
shining  from  communion  with  God,  as  a  messenger  directly 
from  the  throne. 

This  leads  us  to  speak  of  i\\Q  public  prayer — the  prayer 
of  the  sanctuary.  It  is  introduced  by  the  words,  "Let  us 
pray,"  and  as  a  prayer  to  lead  all  the  people,  it  should  have 
a  comprehensive  and  outwardly  formal  character. 

(1.)  It  should  be  plain,  so  that  all  may  be  able  to  fol- 
low it.  At  the  same  time  it  should  not  be  carelessly 
expressed,  and  the  language  should  be  choice  and  pure, 
though  simple. 

(2.)  It  should  unite  all  hearts;  it  should  be  common 
prayer ;  it  should  raise  and  bear  up  the  desires  of  all  hearts 
to  God,  as  those  of  one  man ;  it  should  have  nothing  pri- 
vate, peculiar,  personal,  exclusive  in  it. 

(3.)  It  should  have  a  premeditated  order.  Dr.  Miller,  of 
Princeton,  recommended  that  young  ministers  should  write 
out  the  prayer  for  the  sanctuary  verbatim.     This  advice  ia 


§  39.      THE    SANCTUARY.  509 

good  for  here  and  there  a  preacher,  but  we  would  certainly 
not  commend  it  to  all ;  yet  what  is  called  "the  long  prayer," 
and  perhaps  all  the  devotional  services  of  the  sanctuary, 
should  be  suiEcieutly  premeditated,  in  respect  to  the  subjects 
of  prayer  and  order  of  thought,  to  allow  of  no  confusion 
or  hesitation.  But  while  the  prayer  should  not  be  entirely 
unprepared,  there  should  be  nothing  in  it  of  a  studied, 
literary,  or  ambitious  character  —  nothing  to  attract  atten- 
tion by  its  style ;  it  should  be  the  medium  of  the  desires 
of  the  whole  congregation.  Let  it  not  be  said,  "What  a 
beautiful  prayer ! "  for  no  one  should  be  listening  critically 
to  its  language,  but  joining  in  its  hearty  petitions. 

(4.)  It  should  be,  in  tone  and  language,  prayer,  not 
preaching.  Even  though  the  prayer  may  be  thoughtful, 
and  deeply  subjective  often,  it  should  not  express  a  train 
of  thought  so  much  as  a  train  of  feeling.  It  should  hum- 
bly and  penitently  address  God,  and  not  the  congregation. 

(5.)  While  simple,  it  ought  not  to  be  a  routine  or  con- 
ventional prayer.  While  it  may  not  contain  novel,  odd, 
and  startling  expressions,  yet  it  should  avoid  hackneyed 
phrases ;  for  these  do  not  express  fresh  feeling,  and  time  is 
lost  in  their  repetition.  The  prayer  of  the  sanctuary  ought 
briefly  to  comprehend  the  occasion,  the  theme  of  the  ser- 
mon, the  peculiar  wants  of  the  time  and  the  people,  and  the 
common  wants  of  all  times  and  of  every  people.  Its  variety 
should  come  from  its  being  drawn  from  the  subject  of  the 
sermon,  or  from  the  thoughts  and  feelings  awakened  by 
meditation  upon  a  particular  portion  of  divine  truth.  All 
expressions  lacking  dignity  in  the  direct  address  to  God ; 
all  flippant  familiarity  with  the  Almighty,  or  even  the  car- 
rying of  a  child-like  manner  of  expression  to  too  great  an 
extreme ;  all  petitions  which  play  around  local  ilicts  or 
events,  and  which  inform  Omniscience  of  what  has  oc- 
curred; and,  above  all,  every  expression  that  contains  per- 
sonal praise,  —  these,  simple  good  taste,  to  say  nothing  of  a 
higher  sentiment,  would  lead  us  to  avoid.  Neither  human 
43* 


510  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

praise  nor  blame  should  be  administered  in  prayer,  but  God 
should  be  the  predominating  thought. 

(6.)  There  should  be  a  Christian  tenderness  of  tone  in 
the  public  prayer,  and  in  cases  of  affliction,  and  under  pecu- 
liar circumstances,  this  common  prayer  may  dwell  for  a 
moment  upon  personal  particulars,  upon  the  circumstances 
of  families  or  individuals  of  the  coniyre£:ation. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  this  is  the  peculiarly  devotional 
part  of  the  services,  the  pure  breathings  of  spiritual  desire, 
which  lend  to  all  parts  a  true  tone,  glow,  and  unction.  This 
common  prayer  for  common  wants  recognizes  the  Holy 
Ghost  as  the  Helper,  and  calls  down  the  sanctifying  influ- 
ences of  the  Spirit  to  pervade  and  unite  the  whole  worship ; 
for  the  true  communion  with  God  in  public  worship  is  essen- 
tial to  the  communion  of  saints  with  each  other. 

(7.)  They  should  be  full  of  the  new  ho^e,  joy,  and  im- 
mortal life  of  Christ. 

The  character  of  the  worship  of  the  sanctuary  on  ^'the  LorWs 
day"  the  day  of  Him  who  rose  from  death  and  who  triumphed 
over  evil,  should  be  predominantly  one  of  joy,  not  of  gloom. 
It  is  indeed  "  dies  solis"  where  the  full  risen  sun  of  divine 
love  and  peace  shines  clearly  ;  and  this  was  the  earliest  view 
of  the  day,  and  of  its  comforting,  strengthening,  delightful 
services.^  The  element  of  "  glad  rest,"  the  joyful  and  festival 
element,  brought  into  the  worship  of  the  Christian  sanctuary 
by  the  great  fact  of  Christ's  resurrection,  and  of  his  gift  of 
"  eternal  life,"  should  never  be  lost  sight  of.  One  should  not 
obtain  the  idea  from  the  services  of  the  Christian  sanctuary 
that  he  might  as  well  be  in  a  deistic  temple.  The  prayers, 
songs,  sermon,  should  have  their  living  unity  in  Christ  — 
should  all  breathe  of  him  and  of  his  love,  through  whose 
complete  offering  a  new  approach  to  the  throne  of  grace  is 
made,  and  a  pure  spiritual  worship  is  rendered  possible. 

'  Justin  Martyr,  Apol.  ad  Anton.  Pius.  Ignatius,  ad  Magnes,  c.  9.  Ter- 
tullian,  ad  Nationes,  1,  3. 


§  40.       CHURCH   MUSIC.  511 

There  can  be,  indeed,  no  true  Christian  worship  out  of  Christ, 
or  without  the  idea  of  sacrifice.  We  come  to  God  through 
him  who  has  made  God  known  to  us,  who  has  shown  us  the 
Father,  who  has  opened  to  us,  sinners,  a  way  of  access  to 
the  Holiest.  Vinet  says,  "Every  hour  of  worship  should 
present  an  entire  Christ  to  the  soul  of  the  believer." 

§  40.      Church  Music, 

There  is  no  element  of  worship  which  so  fuses  the  feelings 
and  ajEFectious  into  one  holy  emotion,  and  thus  brings  the 
riches  of  the  heart  into  the  service  of  God,  as  song;  as  it 
is  said  in  Colossians  (3  :^  16) ,  "Xei  the  ivord  of  Christ  dwell  in 
you  richly  in  all  ivisdom,  teaching  and  admonishing  one 
another  in  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs,  singing 
with  grace  in  your  hearts  to  the  Lord." 

The  pastor  may  do  much  to  regulate  this  all-important 
department  of  public  praise  ;  and  it  depends  upon  him,  in  a 
great  measure,  whether  it  be  worthy  of  God's  service,  and 
promotive  of  true  worship,  or  something  isolated,  wholly 
artistic,  and  unspiritual.  The  pastor,  indeed,  should  love 
the  sanctuary  and  all  that  belongs  to  it,  — as  is  said  in  the 
eighty-fourth  Psalm,  of  the  migratory  birds  in  the  spring, 
that  return  to  their  accustomed  haunts,  — he  should  dwell  in 
it,  and  still  praise  God  as  his  chief  joy. 

Sacred  music  should  be  simple  and  pure  —  almost  severe 
—  in  character,  grand  and  elevated  in  movement,  so  as  to 
express  the  thought  of  immortality,  and  to  bear  up  the  soul 
on  its  strong  wings  to  heaven.  It  may  be  also  fervid  and 
varied,  expressing  warmth  of  religious  feeling,  and  the 
spontaneous  desires  of  the  heart. 

Music  is  naturally  the  expression  of  joy,  as  prayer  is  of 
affliction:  thus  James  says  (5:  13),  "/s  .any  among  you 
afflicted?  let  him  pray.  Is  any  merry?  let  Jiim  sing  psalms." 
Much  of  the  dulness  of  church  music  arises,  doubtless,  from 
the  slow  and  languid  movement  with  which  hymns  are  sung ; 


512  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

it  is  owing  partly  to  want  of  interest,  and  partly  to  the  want 
of  a  highly  cultivated  taste.  Church  music  should  never  be 
toned  down  to  a  painfully  artistic  precision,  but  may  have 
considerable  freedom,  irregularitjs  and  range, — though  it 
should  be  the  best  music  artistically,  — i.  e.,  the  best  fitted 
for  the  house  of  God,  the  freest  and  most  full  of  life ;  yet, 
as  art  in  religion  should  be  secondary  to  higher  ends,  sa- 
cred music  had  better  lack  high  scientific  refinement  than 
display  much  of  scientific  skill.  The  province  of  music  in 
worship  is  not  to  please  the  trained  musical  ear,  nor  even 
to  give  variety  and  attraction  to  the  public  service,  but 
simply  to  be  the  medium  of  the  common  devotions  of  the 
people. 

The  foundation  of  Protestant  church  music,  says  Hagen- 
bach,  is  the  choral.^  The  choral  (cantus  plenus,  plein 
chant)  was  a  very  early  institution  in  the  church ;  and 
while  gradually  given  up  by  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Greek 
churches,  it  was  held  upon,  or  rather  revived,  by  the  Re- 
formed churches,  as  a  means  of  spiritual  reformation.  In- 
deed, the  very  idea  of  church  music  necessitates  a  full  chorus, 
or  united  song,  and  does  not  allow  of  the  single  voice,  or 
solo;  and  it  hardly  allows  of  the  church  choir,  which  is  a 
Roman  Catholic  innovation ;  unless,  indeed,  the  choir  is 
joined  with  the  singing  of  the  congregation.  The  true  way, 
we  think,  to  carry  out  the  highest  idea  of  church  music,  is 
to  have  the  church  choir  and  congregational  singing  com- 
bined. The  choir  is  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  and  uphold- 
ing the  congregation,  and  should  be  in  strict  organic  and 
spiritual  relationship  with  the  congregation  —  should  form  a 
part  of  the  true  Christian  congregation. 

We  cannot  enter  into  the  endlessly  prolific  theme  of 
hymnology ;  but  evidently  perfection  has  not  yet  been 
arrived  at  in  any  of  our  numerous  books  of  sacred  song, 
although  an  advance  has  been  made,  in  the  right  direction, 

'  Grundlinien  der  Liturgik  und  Homiletik,  p.  43. 


§  40.      CHURCH   MUSIC.  513 

ill  the  character  and  the  catholicity  of  the  collections.  Our 
books,  howev^er,  have  still  too  much  in  them  that  is  unlyrical 
and  unfit  for  public  service.  There  is  a  vast  deal  of  reli- 
gious poetry  extant,  but  few  men  have  written  hymns  proper 
for  the  worship  of  the  sanctuary,  and  that  live  in  the  heart 
of  the  church  ;  we  could  count  the  names  of  such  upon  our 
fingers.  This,  indeed,  is  a  rare  charisma.  Hymns  that 
cannot  be  sung,  and  that  are  not  sung,  should  be  stricken 
out  of  public  collections.  Hymns  not  adapted  to  easy 
melodies  —  purely  didactic  hymns  —  preaching  or  dogmatic 
hymns  —  unpoetical  or  too  poetical  hymns  —  hymns  that  the 
instinct  of  a  true  leader  avoids, — these  should  not  remain 
in  the  hymn  book.  The  hymn  book  should  be  a  loved 
and  favorite  book  among  the  people ;  it  should  be  in  the 
hands  and  in  the  hearts  of  the  congregation ;  therefore  it 
should  not  be  bulky,  nor  contain  many  hymns  that  do  not 
have  root  in  the  common  faith  and  affection  —  that  are 
abstract,  studied,  and  subjective.  Old  hjanns  that  have 
borne  the  wear  and  tear  of  ages ;  those  that  are,  in  fact, 
reproductions  of  the  most  ancient  hymns  of  the  church,  as 
the  "Fern,  Creator  Sjpiritus" — "Come,  Holy  Spirit; "and 
hymns  that  have  their  inspiration  from  the  word  and  spirit 
of  God,  —  true  Christian  hymns,  in  which  Christ  and  his 
praises  are  sung,  —  those  are  the  best.  As  to  the  tunes, 
they  may,  and  perhaps  should,  comprehend  the  four  parts 
suited  to  male  and  female  voices  —  to  all  voices;  yet  it 
must  be  said,  that  the  best  judges  of  music  in  Germany  pre- 
fer that  the  congregational  sins^ino:  in  the  churches  should 
be  in  unison,  all  following  the  air.  The  tunes  should  bo 
suited  to  the  spirit  and  character  of  the  hymns ;  notwith- 
standing Wesley's  famous  aphorism,  the  tunes  ought  not  to 
have  light  and  degrading  associations.  The  practice  of 
playing  long  voluntaries  and  interludes,  breaking  the  cur- 
rent of  united  song,  and  introducing  the  purely  artistic  idea, 
is  to  be  reprobated.  The  organ  is  a  noble  instrument,  won- 
derfully adapted  to  church  music ;  "  it  dwells  in  the  house 


514  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

of  God,  and  is  enthroned  in  holiness — a  church  within  a 
church  ; "  it  should,  nevertheless,  keep  its  own  place,  and 
act  a  humble  part.  It  should  merely  aid  and  accompany 
the  songs  of  the  church,  and  not  usurp  an  exclusive  place  iu 
the  services  of  the  sanctuary.  How  often  is  the  impression 
of  a  tender  and  spiritual  service  entirely  destroyed  by  some 
performer's  playing,  in  thunder  tones,  an  opera  march  to  ac- 
company or  hustle  people  out  of  the  church  !  On  the  con- 
trary, they  should  be  led  out  with  the  parting  benediction 
of  peaceful  and  solemn  music  resting  upon  them,^  not 
blown  out  as  from  the  mouth  of  a  piece  of  musical  ordnance. 

We  would  give  some  brief  reasons  for  the  general  adop- 
tion of  congregational  singing  in  our  churches. 

1.  It  is  scriptural,  and  in  accordance  loith  the  spirit  of 
Christianity.  The  first  song  of  praise  given  us  iu  the  Bible 
is  the  song  of  Moses.  (Ex.  15.)  "  Then  sang  Moses  and  the 
children  of  Israel  this  song  unto  the  Lord  "  —  "'and  Miriam 
and  all  the  women  answered  them."  Here  are  both  congre- 
gational singing  and  responsive  or  choral  singing  united. 
In  the  Hebrew  worship,  although  instrumental  choirs  were 
in  use,  aud  were  made  a  prominent  feature  of  the  musical  ser- 
vice of  the  sanctuary,  yet  the  whole  congregation  joined  in 
the  choruses.  ^^  Let  the  people  praise  thee,  OGod;  let  all 
the  people  praise  thee,""  was  the  spirit  of  the  worship. 
"Both  young  men  and  maidens,  old  men  and  children" 
united  in  the  song  of  praise.  The  whole  assembly  was 
divided  into  three  parts,  or  choirs  —  into  priests,  Levites, 
and  the  great  congregation.  (See  1  Chron.  15  :  16-25, 
25  :  1-8.)  This  arrangement  was  for  choral  singing.  (See 
also  Nehemiah's  account  of  the  dedication  of  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem,  Neb.  12.)  But  among  the  early  Christians,  such 
a  thing  as  even  a  choir  was  entirely  unknown.  In  the  time 
of  Pliny,  he  tells  us  the  assembly  sang  a  hymn  together, 
"  Carmenque  Christo,  quasi  Leo,  dicere  secum  invicem," 
probably  a  kind  of  metrical  prayer  sung  or  recited  rhythmi- 

'  Hagenbach. 


§  40.       CHURCH   MUSIC.  515 

cally  at  the  public  services  and  feasts  of  love.  The  singing 
of  all  the  people  at  the  communion  table,  which  has  descended 
to  our  times,  was  undoubtedly  the  general  mode  of  singing 
of  the  primitive  Christians.  It  was  not  until  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, in  the  beginning  of  spiritual  decline,  when  the  true 
spirit  of  Christianity  was  dying  out,  and  being  replaced  by 
a  hierarchical  unity,  that  the  distinct  choir  was  introduced. 
An  ecclesiastical  historian  says,  "At  this  time  a  distinct 
class  of  persons  was  appointed  to  take  charge  of  this  part 
of  religious  worship.  But  the  people  continued  for  a  cen- 
tury or  more  to  enjoy,  in  some  measure,  their  ancient  priv- 
ilege of  singing  together,  joining  occasionally  in  the  chorus 
and  singing  the  responses." 

Returning,  then,  to  congregational  singing,  is  returning  to 
the  method  of  the  primitive  church ;  and  it  best  expresses 
the  social  spirit  of  our  faith.  United  song  lifts  hearts 
above  all  walls  of  separation,  and  enables  them  to  flow  to- 
gether, if  the  object  of  the  song  is  divine.  This  com- 
munion of  hearts  in  song  cannot  be  realized  so  well  iu 
choir  singing ;  for  listening  to  the  singing  of  others  is  to 
remain  one's  self  iu  a  passive  condition.  We  may  be  de- 
lighted, softened,  and  thrilled  by  the  music,  but  the  heart 
is  not  stirred  as  in  the  act  of  singing  one's  self.  The  efiect  is 
sesthetical,  not  devotional.  The  deepest  springs  of  emotion 
are  not  touched,  and  the  melody  in  the  heart  is  not  heard. 
When  the  novelty  of  congregational  singing  is  worn  oif,  the 
heart  of  the  people  goes  out  in  spontaneous  worship  of  God 
while  singing  in  accord  together,  each  forgetting  himself, 
and  all  borne  up  by  the  sacred  words  into  which  the  voice 
and  heart  are  thrown.  Therefore  we  believe  there  is  more 
of  true  worship,  and  more  of  true  honor  of  Christ,  iu  con- 
gregational singing,  than  in  any  other  kind  of  church  music. 

2.  It  fills  an  important  want  in  our  congregational  mode 
of  worship.  It  makes  it  "congregational ;"  whereas,  as  it 
is  sometimes  conducted,  it  is  the  least  so  of  all  modes  of  wor- 
ship.   We  depend  upon  the  stimulus  of  the  sermon  to  keep 


516  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

people  interested.  There  is  not  enough  of  the  gentle,  health- 
ful, and  simple  action  of  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  peo- 
ple, while  themselves  participating  in  the  solemn  and  joy- 
ful services  of  the  Lord's  house.  Congregational  singing 
would  go  far  to  remedy  this  serious  evil ;  and,  as  has  been 
said,  cono-reijational  sino-ing  is  the  true  Protestant  method 
of  church  music.  Gregory  I.  introduced  the  Ambrosian 
song,  or  chant,  in  the  place  of  the  popular  choral ;  and,  in 
opposition  to  this  Roman  Catholic  choir  singing,  the  congre- 
gational mode  was  introduced  into  the  Reformed  churches 
chiefly  through  Luther,  and  became  a  mighty  instrument  of 
reformation  in  Germany,  Switzerland,  Scotland,  and  Eng- 
land. Papal  writers  fulmined  against  it,  as  an  instrument  of 
fanaticism  and  revolution ;  it  was  called  ''  the  Geneva  fash- 
ion." It  was  the  singing  of  the  people,  in  contrast  to  the 
singing  of  the  priests.  It  was  earnestly  adopted  and  em- 
ployed by  the  English  Puritans,  who,  however,  disapproved 
of  the  use  of  the  organ,  and  the  singing  of  responses,  not 
liking  what  they  called  "the  tossing  of  the  psalms  from  one 
side  to  the  other,  with  interminglings  of  organs."  The 
Westminster  assembly  approved  of  congregational  singing 
in  these  words  :  "It  is  the  duty  of  Christians  to  praise  God 
publicly  by  the  singing  of  psalms  together  in  the  congre- 
gation, and  also  privately  in  the  family.  In  singing  of 
psalms  the  voice  is  to  be  tunabl}''  ordered  ;  but  the  chief 
care  must  be  to  sing  with  understanding,  making  melody 
unto  the  Lord  with  the  heart  as  well  as  with  the  voice." 
Congregational  singing  is  still  the  mode  in  the  European 
Protestant  Reformed  churches,  especially  in  Scotland  and 
Germany.  In  the  city-churches  of  Germany  the  choir  is 
added,  to  sing  more  elaborate  introductory  and  occasional 
pieces ;  but  in  the  ordinary  singing  all  the  people  join,  and 
sing  with  a  heart,  with  a  full  voice,  unto  the  Lord.  No  one 
thinks  of  his  own  singing,  but  each  seems  to  be  absorbed  in 
the  simple  act  of  w^orship.  There  is  not  much  of  elaborate 
melody  or  tune  to   the   hymns,  only  a   certain    measured 


§  40.       CHURCH  MUSIC.  517 

rhythm,  almost  monotonous  in  its  effect ;  but  one  uever  loses 
the  idea  that  it  is  a  real  part  of  the  worship ;  and,  at  times, 
in  the  larger  congregations,  the  wave  or  swell  of  sound  is 
majestic,  although  the  artistic  effect  is  the  last  thing 
thought  of. 

3.  It  is  expressive  and  promotive  of  a  spirit  of  revival.  It 
is  a  noticeable  fact,  that  in  times  of  spiritual  reformation, 
Christians  instinctively  resume  congregational  singing,  like 
streams  that  in  time  of  freshet  flow  together.  Now  there 
must  be  some  connection  between  the  two  facts.  New  con- 
verts love  to  sing ;  and  as  men  become  more  deeply  inter- 
ested in  spiritual  things,  more  filled  with  the  thoughts,  feel- 
ings, and  joys  of  Christ's  kingdom,  they  give  utterance  to 
these  new  emotions  in  united  son":.  ConOTCijational  siujrins: 
is  an  untrammelled  and  joyful  expression  of  the  heart; 
it  is  also  a  humble  expression  of  religious  emotion.  The 
individual  is  lost  in  the  multitude :  all  are  brouo;ht  to  the 
same  level ;  the  spirit  of  criticism  is  expelled.  No  one  says, 
"  How  finely  that  was  sung ! "  but  each  one  feels  that  it 
is  good  to  sing,  because  God  is  good,  and  is  to  be  praised 
and  adored  by  all.  If  one  voice  is  too  high,  or  another  too 
low,  —  if  one  is  too  shrill,  or  another  too  harsh,  —  what  mat- 
ters it  ?  It  is  a  stream  of  united  praise  to  the  Most  High,  that 
flows,  even  if  it  flows  like  a  mountain  torrent  full  of  rocks 
and  breaks,  toward  the  ocean  of  God's  glory.  True  reli- 
gious impressions  are  often  made  by  congregational  singing, 
where  the  spirit  of  praise  and  love  abounds.  Its  humility, 
its  good  feeling,  its  expression  of  union  and  brotherhood,  its 
simplicity  and  fervor, — these  penetrate  and  affect  the  hearts 
of  even  unbelieving  men.  Many  men  have  been  converted 
by  the  simple  hymn  in  which  all  join,  who  have  stood  out 
against  the  sermon,  which  is  but  the  expression  of  one 
mind  and  heart.  Such  an  instance  is  related  in  Dr.  Beech- 
er's  life :  at  a  prayer  meeting  held  in  the  Hanover  Street 
Church,  in  Boston,  a  familiar  revival  hymn  was  sung  by  the 
whole  congregation ;  and  one  who  afterward  narrated  his  reli- 
U 


518  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

gious  experience  said  that  it  was  during  the  singing  of  that 
hymn  that  his  heart  had  been  iSrst  touched.  Thus  music 
may  sometimes  become  not  only  the  means  of  expression, 
but  the  means  of  impression  —  of  deep  and  lasting  impres- 
sion. Con2:re2rational  sins^incj  is  also  an  economical  method. 
Church  music,  as  every  pastor  and  paying  church  member 
knows,  is  an  expensive  item  ;  but  in  congregational  singing 
the  whole  matter  of  church  music  becomes  more  an  affair  of 
the  church  membership  itself,  and  tends  to  develop  the 
talents  of  the  church,  and  thus  a  church  is  led  gradually, 
as  it  should  do,  to  depend  less  and  less  upon  the  world 
outside,  and  to  be  sufficient  in  itself  for  all  its  needs, 
even  of  the  most  practical  and  scientific  kind.  Any  one  who 
has  a  musical  "gift"  may  thus  employ  it  for  God's  praise, 
and  do  as  much  for  the  glory  of  his  name,  and  give  as  much 
to  the  cause  of  Christ,  by  voluntarily  practising  that  gift  in 
singing  with  the  congregation,  and  in  teaching  the  congrega- 
tion how  to  sing  God's  praise,  as  in  any  other  way. 

But  congregational  singing  cannot  be  perfected  in  a  day, 
for  it  is  a  great  work,  a  great  consummation,  which  must  be 
skilfully  and  patiently,  labored  for.  Of  course  there  must 
be  some  knowledo^e  of  music  in  the  consfreiration,  and  the 
people  must  have  striven  to  cultivate  themselves  in  this 
respect  before  any  adequate  result  can  be  obtained.  There 
should  be,  at  first,  a  leader,  a  choir,  and  an  organ ;  for  the 
attempt  to  introduce  congregational  singing  by  summarily 
and  entirely  discarding  the  use  of  the  choir,  is  one  reason 
why  it  has  so  often  failed.  Music  does  not  come  from 
heaven  in  the  sense  tliat  human  effort  is  not  needed  to  attain 
it;  and  perhaps  some  individuals  cannot  acquire  it  at  all, 
though  we  believe  that  there  are  few  who  cannot  learn  to 
join  in  the  singing  of  public  worship.  In  Germany  all  sing 
because  they  have  been  educated  from  childhood  to  do  so. 
We,  as  a  nation,  have  also  the  native  musical  ability,  but 
not  always  the  musical  cultivation.  Shall  a  beginning 
never  be  made?      Shall  we  sit  dumb  in  the  Lord's  house 


§  41.   CONDUCT  OF  A  PEAYEE  MEETING.       519 

forever?  The  tunes  selected  should  be  at  first  plain  and 
simple  —  the  old  familiar  tunes,  in  which  there  is  real  melo- 
dy, but  little  of  difficult  variation  or  rapid  changes ;  for 
we  want  no  delicate  turns,  nor  brilliant  effects,  in  congrega- 
tional singing,  but  something  easy  and  grand  in  movement ; 
and  it  should  be  thoroughly  understood  that  all  are  to  join 
in  the  endeavor.  It  is  to  be  congregational  siuorins: ;  the 
whole  congregation  is  to  be  compromised  for  the  success  of 
the  good  experiment,  and  every  one  is  to  feel  a  personal 
responsibility.  Let  it  be  understood  (and  the  pastor  must 
be  the  chief  leader  in  the  work)  that  this  part  of  the  service 
is  to  be  reformed;  is  to  be  brought  back  to  the  true  congrega- 
tional way ;  is  to  be  changed  from  the  Romish  choir  singing 
to  the  primitive  apostolic  singing  of  all  the  people  ;  is  to  mean 
something ;  is  to  be  true  worship ;  and  that  every  one  is  to 
sing  the  praises  of  God.  If  that  is  done,  then  God  will  bless 
that  part  of  the  worship  of  his  sanctuary ;  and  we  venture 
to  predict  that  a  new  religious  life  will  come  in  with  con- 
gregational singing ;  for  then  the  people  will  not  be  listien- 
ers,  but  worshippers. 

§  41.     Conduct  of  a  Prayer  Meeting. 

As  a  Christian  body,  depending  upon  common  aid,  look- 
ing for  common  blessings,  working  for  a  common  object, 
bound  by  common  hopes,  the  church  of  Christ  feel  an  in- 
stinctive drawing  together  in  the  exercise  and  expression  of 
their  devotional  desires.  To  worship  together  once  a  week 
in  the  sanctuary  is  not  enough.  They  are  constrained  to 
meet  often  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  relying  on  his  clear 
promise. 

The  prayer  meeting  is  important,  because  it  is  one  of  the 
chief  means  of  maintainins:  the  church's  life  ;  and  the  meet- 
ing  is  difficult  to  sustain,  because  the  spirit  of  prayer  is 
the  expression  of  the  spiritual  life  of  the  church,  and  be- 
cause certain  reasons  beyond  the  prayer  meeting  itself — 


520  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

beyond  the  power  of  the  pastor  —  are  constantly  at  work  to 
deaden  the  faith  of  the  church. 

Yet  much  ma}^  be  done  to  render  the  prayer  meeting 
attractive  and  efficient  for  good. 

In  the  first  place,  the  pastor  should  indoctrinate  his  peo- 
ple, or  they  themselves  should  be  thoroughly  established, 
in  three  fundamental  truths. 

1.  In  a  perfect  faith  in  the  power,  duty,  and  privilege  of 
prayer.  Prayer  is  both  the  natural  and  appointed  means 
of  spiritual  life ;  it  is  a  real  communion  with  the  source  of 
life ;  it  is  the  necessary  demand  whose  supply  is  in  God  ; 
and  it  brinijs  the  human  heart  into  a  condition  to  be  blessed  ; 
as  says  Jeremy  Taylor,  the  spirit  "  ascends  and  dwells  with 
God,  until  it  returns  laden  with  the  blessing  of  Heaven  ;  " 
and  it  follows  that  a  Christian,  or  a  Christian  church,  that 
iiefflects  this  means  of  intercourse  with  God,  cannot  live  or 
have  power.     There  should  be  no  lingering  unbelief  here. 

2.  In  the  need  of  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  prayer.  This 
unity  is  created  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  brings  discordant 
spirits  into  one,  in  the  will  of  God.  Differences  of  will  in 
the  church  are  occasioned  by  unbelief,  pride,  jealousy,  am- 
bition, indifi'erence  to  truth,  in  fine,  the  working  of  the 
selfish  principle.  Such  differences  prove  the  absence  of  the 
Spirit,  or  of  the  spiritual  mind.  Personal  controversies, 
strifes  for  precedence,  sectarian  conflicts,  doctrinal  errors 
and  discords,  all  human  things  that  separate,  abound 
where  the  life  of  the  Spirit  does  not  abound ;  but  when 
Christians  are  brought  into  one  mind,  with  one  accord, 
there  is  the  uniting  work  of  the  divine  Spirit,  and  prayers 
become  the  inspiration  of  the  Spirit,  the  utterances  of  the 
desires  of  Christ's  heart,  and  are  powerful  w'ith  God ;  and 
that  is  the  place,  above  all  others,  which  draws  the  assimi- 
lating love  and  power  of  Heaven  to  it.  This  unity  of  the 
spirit  of  the  church  implies  also  true  repentance,  the  hum- 
ble, obedient,  and  holy  mind,  brought  into  one  wdth  the 
mind  and  spirit  of  God  and  of  his  holy  kingdom  and  peo- 


§  41.   CONDUCT  OF  A  PRAYER  MEETING.      521 

jDle.  Instead  of  many  centres,  as  in  the  world,  where  every 
individual  will  is  its  own  centre  of  life  and  purpose,  there  is 
one  common  centre  of  life  in  Christ ;  ^  and  this  is  the  work 
of  the  unifying  Spirit. 

3.  The  cultivation  of  a  spirit  of  constant  prayer  and  sup- 
plication. Christians,  we  are  told,  should  ^^ pray  always 
ivith  all  prayer ;  "  they  should  "continue  instant  in  prayer." 
The  whole  life  of  the  Christian  should  be,  in  Origen's  words, 
"  one  great  continual  prayer,"  for  this  is  the  expression  of 
an  abiding  faith  in  God  as  the  real  Strengthener,  Vindica- 
tor, Redeemer  of  the  soul.  The  church  member,  therefore, 
should  not  expect  to  be  made  prayerful  at  the  prayer  meet- 
ing itself  if  he  carries  thither  no  spirit  of  prayer ;  but  he 
should  live  in  such  a  prayerful  state,  that  to  meet  his 
brethren  to  pray  is  but  giving  an  opportunity  for  the  mani- 
festation of  this  spirit,  and  is  therefore  the  greatest  of  priv- 
ileges. Christians  coming  together  without  the  spirit  of 
prayer,  with  cold  hearts,  will  kindle  no  new  life,  but  will 
help  to  freeze  one  another;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
concourse  of  truly  believing,  praying,  loving  hearts,  will 
produce  a  more  powerful  flame  of  devotion,  so  that  each  and 
all  will  glow  with  increased  ardor,  and  advance  more  rapidly 
in  holiness. 

The  pastor  should  also  set  forth  the  reasons  or  motives 
which  should  draw  Christians  to  the  social  prayer  meeting, 
as  to  the  most  profitable  of  all  their  meetings  and  services 
—  such  motives  as  the  love  of  a  common  Saviour,  fidelity 
to  covenant  vows  and  obligations,  and  the  attainment  of 
higher  spiritual  life.  A  constant  attendance  upon  the  meet- 
ing of  social  prayer  will  tell  powerfully  upon  a  Christian's 
life  and  character,  as  will  a  constant  neglect  of  the  prayer 
meeting.  As  disciples  of  Christ,  we  cannot  live  alone : 
we  are  born  into  a  household  ;  and  there  can  be,  as  a  general 
rule,  no  great  advance  made  in  holiness,  away  from  the 

'  Maurice  to  Palmer. 

44* 


522  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

common  life,  the  common  hope,  the  common  love.  One 
cannot  well  grow  holy  entirely  by  himself.  And  lastly,  he 
should  urge  the  motive  of  advancement  of  Christ's  work. 
This  must  come,  and  can  come  only,  through  common 
prayer  and  striving.  What  Christian  can  be  exempted  from 
this?  There  is  a  work  to  be  done,  as  well  as  a  holiness  to 
be  attained.  Other  souls  are  to  be  converted,  as  well  as 
one's  own  soul  to  be  purified  and  saved ;  and  a  genuine 
desire  to  save  souls  will  bring  men  to  the  prayer  meet- 
ing, to  seek  God's  aid,  to  obtain  strength  to  work.  The 
answer  to  their  prayers  for  the  conversion  of  men  is  often, 
we  doubt  not,  in  God's  making  them  the  instrumentality 
in  doing  this  work,  endowing  them  with  a  winning  and 
overcoming  power.  Thus  we  hold  that  prayer  should  be 
always  accompanied  by  the  earnest,  vigorous  use  of  every 
instrumentality  of  good.  It  does  not  take  the  place  of 
active  effort.  Good  is  not  accomplished  by  men's  praying, 
and  not  working.  A  church  may  pray  for  the  conversion 
of  the  world  till  doomsday  ;  but  if  it  lifts  not  a  finger  to  aid 
the  cause,  and  goes  not  forth,  with  strenuous  purpose  and 
self-denying  labor,  to  bring  the  new  kiugdom  of  light  and 
love  into  men's  hearts,  the  world,  as  far  as  that  church  is  con- 
cerned, will  roll  darkling  on  forever.  Prayer  aids  work, 
prompts  the  best  methods,  inspires  Christian  zeal,  and 
makes  it  successful. 

But  in  regard  to  the  meeting  itself,  so  much  depends 
upon  the  pastor  for  its  right  conduct,  that  he,  above  others, 
should  be  prepared  in  his  own  mind  and  heart,  and  should 
not  approach  it  with  a  cold,  preoccupied  mind;  for  an  uu- 
spiritual  leader  kills  the  life  of  the  prayer  meeting.  There 
is  an  intellectual  preparation  which  he  should  make  in  his 
selection  of  the  passage  of  Scripture,  the  hymns,  the 
theme  of  prayer  and  contemplation,  and  the  general  direc- 
tion to  be  given  to  the  meeting,  which  lend  it  interest,  aim, 
and  depth. 


§  41.       CONDUCT  OF   A   PRAYER   MEETING.  523 

1.  Those  filings  to  be  avoided  in  the  conduct  of  a  prayer 
meeting. 

(a.)  Self-confidence  and  self -display .  In  all  the  pastor 
says  and  does  he  should  reprove  this  spirit  in  himself  and 
in  others.  He  should  impress  the  conviction  that  it  is  a 
meeting  with  God  for  divine  ends,  and  not  for  the  exhibition 
of  man's  methods,  thoughts,  or  powers.  There  may  be  free- 
dom, freshness,  intellectual  life,  brought  in,  but  there  should 
be  no  display  of  these,  and  there  is  no  spot  where  such  dis- 
play is  more  out  of  place.  The  presence  of  God,  the  desire 
to  reach  God,  the  huno^erinsr  and  thirstinsf  after  the  jjifts 
and  life  of  God,  in  a  word,  the  devotional  character  of  the 
meeting,  should  not  be  lost  sight  of.  It  is  not  a  meeting 
for  preaching,  but  for  prayer.  The  didactic,  the  intellec- 
tual, the  human  element,  should  make  place  for  the  devo- 
tional. All  the  remarks  and  instruction  should  be  but  for 
the  purpose  of  guiding  the  soul  in  its  petitions,  and  awaken- 
ing faith  in  the  power  of  prayer  and  the  nearness  of  God. 

(6.)  A  co77')jplaini7ig,  ^yeiulant,  desj)onding  spiiHt.  There 
may  be  solemn  admonition  and  faithful  jileading  (indeed, 
this  is  the  time,  for  saying  plain  things)  ;  but  to  give  way  to 
a  discouraged,  fault-finding  spirit  is  wrong  toward  God, 
and  it  extinguishes  what  feeble  hope  there  may  be.  It  does 
no  good  to  be  always  telling  the  church  how  dead  and  cold 
it  is ;  but  let  there  be  life  in  one's  self,  and  that  will  com- 
municate itself  to  others.  Some  church  members  are  in  a 
chronic  state  of  complaint,  and  this  is  their  only  capital. 
They  should  be  silenced  by  the  breath  and  prevalence  of  a 
higher  spirit.  Let  the  prayer  meeting  be  a  serious  and 
thoughtful,  but  still  a  cheerful  place — a  place  of  light 
when  all  around  and  outside  may  seem  dark.  True  emo- 
tion is  not  often  highly  intensified,  but  rather  expressive  of 
an  even  sentiment  of  cheerful  hope.  If  this  is  the  tone  of 
the  prayer  meeting,  troubled  and  restless  souls  will  run 
to  it  for  comfort,  peace,  and  refreshment. 

(c.)    Monotonousness.     While  there    may  be    a    certain 


524  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

degree  of  steady  uniformity,  the  meeting  should  not  be  per- 
mitted to  fdl  into  a  groove.  One  brother,  and  especially  the 
pastor,  should  not  do  all  the  praying  or  speaking ;  neither 
should  one  truth,  or  aspect  of  truth,  — not  even  the  subject 
of  a  revival  of  religion,  —  become  a  fixed  theme  of  remark 
or  petition.  Routine  should  be  broken  up,  if  needful,  by 
bold  summary  methods.  Different  minds  should  be  brought 
out ;  all  talents  should  be  developed ;  the  monstrous  error 
that  one  should  be  past  forty,  or  fifty  years  old,  before  he 
has  a  right  to  speak  in  a  prayer  meeting,  should  be  ex- 
ploded, and  3''oung  men  should  be  summoned  to  the  front. 
Passing  events  should  be  taken  advantage  of,  and  the  pres- 
ent moment  should  be  infused  into  the  meeting. 

(cZ.)  Long iJrayers.  "Where  weariness  begins,  devotion 
ends."  Long  prayers,  long  remarks,  long  hj'mns,  and  long 
exercises,  excepting  in  times  of  extraordinary  interest,  are 
dull  things.  The  meeting  should  rarely  run  over  the  ap- 
pointed hour ;  but  while  there  should  be  no  miserable  rule 
as  to  time,  3'ct  there  should  be  prompt  movement  in  the 
meeting.  All  should  be  natural,  fluent,  and  free.  Brethren 
should  be  encouraged  to  pray  for  what  they  want,  for  no  less 
and  no  more.  There  should  be  a  basis  of  sincere  desire  in 
evei'y  petition  offered,  and  nothing  should  be  uttered  for 
form's  sake.  If  this  principle  were  observed,  the  prayers 
of  the  best  Christians  would  be  abbreviated  ;  for  how  much 
more  do  Christians  often  ask  for  in  their  prayers  than  they 
desire  !  The  Lord's  prayer,  which  comprehends  this  world 
and  eternity,  how  short  it  is  !  The  publican's  prayer,  how 
few  its  words  !  The  feeling  that  one  is  obliged  to  make  a 
long  prayer,  or  a  long  address,  prevents  many  a  modest 
man  from  taking  part  in  the  exercises,  who,  perhaps,  would 
be  able, and  willing  to  utter  one  valuable  thought  springing 
from  his  own  ex^oerience,  or  to  put  up  one  humble  petition 
from  the  depths  of  his  soul. 

But  let  us  now  look  at  the  things  to  be  specially  cared 
and  sought  for  in  the  conduct  of  a  prayer  meeting. 


§  41.       CONDUCT    or   A    PEAYEE   MEETING.  525 

(a.)  A  full  attendance.  The  pastor,  to  bring  about  this 
result,  will  find  it  necessary  to  converse  privately  with 
persons,  as  well  as  instruct  publicly  on  the  subject.  He 
should  kindly  admonish  Christians  of  their  duty  to  Christ 
and  his  kingdom,  and  thus  warn  or  win,  if  possible,  all 
church  members  to  come,  with  more  or  less  regularity,  to 
the  prayer  meeting;  and,  above  all,  the  pastor  should  be 
present  himself,  and  lead  the  meeting. 

(5.)  A  good  beginning.  Dr.  Finney,  in  his  work  on 
Eevivals,  notices  this  (p.  70).  He  says  that  the  pastor,  or 
leader,  should  call  upon  the  most  spiritual  first  to  strike  the 
key-note  of  the  meeting ;  for  it  rarely  rises  above  its  begin- 
ning. It  is  well  to  have  one  definite  truth  for  meditation, 
springing  from  the  word  of  God,  and  thus  the  meeting  Avill 
be  grounded  in  the  spirit  and  will  of  God ;  but  no  method 
should  be  rigid. 

(c.)  Freedom.  It  sometimes  happens  that  a  church  mem- 
ber, from  age,  character,  or  will,  obtains  a  licensed  tyranny 
over  a  praj^er  meeting,  to  the  repression  of  spontaneous 
feeling  and  speech  on  the  part  of  the  other  members ; 
which  domination  over  the  free  utterance  of  the  broth- 
erhood should  not  be  submitted  to.  The  pastor  should 
jealously  guard  the  freedom  of  the  meeting,  and  should 
nourish  the  most  timid  manifestations  of  the  Spirit  from 
all  true  followers  of  Christ.  He  should  encourage  all  ex- 
pression of  sincere  thought  and  desire,  and  he  should 
sufier  no  undue  intiuence  of  any  kind  to  weigh  upon  the 
perfect  freedom  of  the  meeting,  not  even  the  too  great  free- 
dom of  some. 

(cZ.)  Point.  Even  in  the  wording  of  praj^er  there  should 
be  direct  and  precise  language.  Superfluous  sentences,  long 
parentheses,  vague  and  unmeaning  expressions,  should  be 
avoided  in  the  pastor's  prayer ;  and  this  will  teach  others : 
but,  above  all,  there  should  be  definiteness  of  object  in  the 
petition;  something  in  particular  should  be  prayed  for; 
and  it  need  not  always  be,  as  we  have  said,  specifically,  a 


526  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

revival,  but  some  other  object  which  bears  upon  the  spirit- 
ual interests  of  the  people,  and  which  may  be  preparatory  to 
a  higher  spiritual  life ;  such  as  ignorance  and  darkness 
of  mind  in  regard  to  divine  things ;  the  critical  state  of 
the  country ;  some  afflicting  event  or  bereavement  of 
general  interest ;  the  need  of  a  ])etter  understanding  and 
obedience  of  some  principle  of  morality ;  some  doctrine 
or  grace,  which  has,  perhaps,  lain  long  neglected;  the  reli- 
gious welfare  of  business  men ;  the  prevailing  evils  of  the 
community ;  the  condition  of  the  impenitent  of  the  congre- 
gation ;  the  preaching  of  the  word  on  the  ''  Lord's  day ;  " 
the  religious  state  and  training  of  the  young ;  family  reli- 
gion ;  the  ijrowth  of  holiness  in  the  individual  heart. 

(e.)  Life.  Whatever  else  the  prayer  meeting  fails  in,  it 
should  have  life.  Living  thoughts,  living  prayers,  coming 
from  the  heart  of  man,  and  going  to  the  heart  of  God, 
should  be  sought  for.  The  Holy  Spirit,  —  the  "  Creator 
Spirit,"  —  should  truly  inspire  the  prayers,  and  breathe 
new  life  through  the  services.  Coldness,  deadness,  sin, 
unbelief,  are  nothing  but  the  results  of  the  soul's  separation 
from  God ;  and  this  fellowship  with  God  the  Spirit,  being 
renewed,  there  comes  life  in  the  souls  of  God's  children, 
and  this  is  manifested  to  all  in  their  prayers.  Through  all 
that  is  said  and  done,  there  should  pour  an  ever-flowing 
current  of  life. 

(f.)  Fervent  faitJi,  Such  a  faith  is  invincible  ;  and  the 
believer  prays  on,  whether  there  be  few  or  many  to  pray 
with  him,  grateful  for  the  least  answers  of  prayer,  hunger- 
ing and  thirsting  to  be  filled,  believing  that  it  will  be 
answered,  and  that  the  blessing  will  surely  come.  The 
woman  of  old  time  who  was  willing  to  take  the  crumbs 
that  fell  from  the  master's  table,  is  a  type  of  this  humble 
but  courageous  spirit,  faithful  in  times  of  declension,  living 
in  the  love  of  God,  never  distrusting  Christ,  never  despair- 
ing of  his  aid.  One  such  praying  believer,  though  the 
humblest  of  the  flock,  is  an  inestimable  possession  to  any 


§  42.       MARRIAGE    AND   BURIAL.  527 

church,  and  should  be  greatly  valued  by  the  pastor;  for 
such  a  soul  forms  a  perpetual  germ  of  revival. 

Ill  conclusion,  the  prayer  meeting,  as  we  have  said,  should 
be  something  real  —  it  should  mean  something  earnest  — 
progress  in  holy  living,  and  in  every  good  work  for  men 
and  the  world.  It  should  prepare  Christians  to  serve  Christ. 
It  should  string  their  nerves  to  fight  the  good  fight.  It 
should  not  be  kept  up  simply  because  it  is  the  custom  of  the 
church  to  have  such  a  meeting,  and  because  it  has  descended 
from  the  most  ancient  times  ;  but  it  should  be  regarded  as  a 
power  —  as  a  means  of  present  and  mighty  good.  By  it,  the 
preaching  of  the  word  may  be  greatly  aided ;  for  without 
the  prayers  of  the  church,  the  preaching  of  the  pastor  is  not 
likely  to  succeed.  The  power  of  the  Spirit  must  be  con- 
current with  the  publication  of  the  truth. 

§  42.     Marriage  and  Burial. 

Marriage,  as  a  divine  institution,  dates  back  to  the  crea- 
tion of  the  race,  and  is  a  fact  of  revelation.  The  union  of 
the  sexes,  as  established  and  blessed  by  God,  is  declared  to 
be  needful  to  the  complete  perfection  of  the  life  of  the  race, 
both  physically  and  spiritually,  since  man  is  incomplete 
without  woman,  and  the  woman  without  the  man  ;  and  in 
the  marriage  of  the  two  the  Saviour  pronounced  them 
(Matt.  19:  6),  to  be  "  one."  This  is  the  divine  law;  for 
marriage  is  regarded  in  the  Scriptures  as  a  holy  relationship 
in  which  two  persons  become  virtually  one,  but  in  which, 
neither  personal  freedom  nor  selfhood  is  destroyed ;  it  is 
established  and  strengthened.  It  presupposes  a  common 
associate  life,  wdierein,  while  the  individuality  of  each  is 
respected,  and  there  is  perfect  equality  in  regard  to  honor 
and  dignity,  yet  there  is  a  mutual  surrender  of  will,  so  that 
there  may  be  true  harmony  in  all  the  great  objects  of  living, 
for  the  best  good  of  all  concerned,  and  for  the  praise  of 


528  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

God.  Of  course  the  only  root  of  such  a  perfect  harmony 
and  union  of  spirit  must  be  in  religion  —  in  Christian  faith. 
Marriage,  therefore,  if  not  a  sacrament,  as  the  Roman  Catho- 
lics regard  it,  and  as  it  very  soon  came  to  be  esteemed  in  the 
early  church,  — the  rite  being  accompanied  with  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  Lord's  Supper,  — yet  it  is  a  religious  institution, 
and  forms  a  pure  type  of  the  relationship  of  Christ  to  his 
church. 

The  marriage  ceremony  should  be  a  Christian  act,  — an  act 
of  worship, — in  which  God's  hand  of  mercy  is  gratefully 
acknowledged,  a  united  consecration  to  his  service  made, 
and  the  divine  Spirit  invoked,  in  order  that  he  may  cause 
those  who  are  enterino^  into  the  married  state  to  be  sensible 
of  the  nature  of  their  vows,  that  those  vows  may  be  made 
in  faith,  and  that  their  love  may  be  a  spiritual  and  sanctified 
affection.  It  is  an  occasion  where  religion  lends  a  glory  to 
this  human  life  ;  and  when  every  word  should  aid  the  sacred 
character  of  a  scene,  in  whose  pure  and  joyful  festivities  the 
Lord  himself  might  vouchsafe  to  grant,  as  he  once  did,  his 
blessed  presence.  Since  marriage  is  so  enduring  a  relation- 
ship, it  behooves  the  pastor  to  be  extremely  careful,  and  per- 
fectly well  prepared  in  the  part  he  assumes  in  it.  Even  in 
minor  matters  relating  to  his  portion  of  the  solemn  transac- 
tion, he  should  be  sure  that  all  proper  requirements  are  ful- 
filled ;  and  if  he  has  any  reason  to  suspect  that  there  is  any- 
thing in  the  history  or  circumstances  of  either  party  which 
is  wrong  and  irregular,  or  which  would  invalidate  a  true 
Christian  marriage,  or  even  render  it  an  unhappy  and 
unfortunate  one,  he  should  courteously  decline  performing 
the  ceremony ;  for  by  performing  it  he  may  be  the  means 
of  inflicting  a  lasting  wrong  and  injury.  The  true  idea  or 
intent  of  marriage  is  in  the  willing  consent  of  the  parties, 
from  a  sincere  motive  to  promote  the  true  ends  of  the 
ftimily  relationship ;  and  therefore  the  pastor  should  not 
give  the  church's  sanction,  nor  speak  the  divine  benedic- 
tion, upon  a  marriage  between  unfit  parties,  or  under  false 


§  42.   MARRIAGE  AND  BURIAL.  529 

pretences  of  any  kind.  He  should  be  able  to  speak  with 
sincerity  the  solemn  words,  "  Who7n  God  hath  joined  together 
let  no  man  ])ut  asunder J^ 

The  Burial  Service  greatly  differs  in  its  forms  among  dif- 
erent  churches.  In  some  Congregational  parishes  in  New 
England  a  long  and  elaborate  funeral  address  is  expected 
from  the  minister ;  and  in  other  places,  simply  a  prayer  at  the 
residence  is  required.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  however, 
that  the  devotional,  and  not  the  didactic,  element  should  pre- 
dominate at  such  a  time ;  for  burial  is  an  act  of  true  wor- 
ship —  of  the  humble  praise  of  God  for  his  power  over,  and 
presence  in,  death  ;  and  also  of  his  manifestation  in  Christ,  as 
the  Resurrection  and  the  Life.  Death  is  itself  the  preacher. 
If  one  attempts  an  extended  address,  or  anything  like  a  de- 
liberate and  minute  analysis  of  character,  he  will  probably 
fail ;  for  if,  indeed,  God's  voice  in  death,  if  the  silent  expres- 
sion of  the  life  and  character  of  the  departed,  do  not  reach 
the  living,  the  voice  of  the  human  preacher  will  not  do  so. 

A  few  appropriate  extracts  from  the  Scriptures,  and  a 
simple,  feeling  prayer,  with  the  singing  of  a  hymn  and  a 
benediction  at  the  grave,  prefaced,  if  the  deceased  has  been 
a  true  Christian,  with  a  word  expressive  of  the  hope  of  the 
glorious  resurrection  of  the  just,  are,  we  think,  all  that  is 
generally  needed,  and  all  that  is  best  for  a  proper  Christian 
burial.  Vinet  says  (Pastoral  Theology,  p.  185),  "Now,  it 
is  the  pastor  who  renders  religion  visible ;  and  seeing  the 
progress  Avhich  the  mind  has  made,  if  the  pastor  be  hero 
wanting,  some,  one  will  take  his  place,  and  make  his  absence 
more  manifest,  to  the  great  disadvantage  of  his  character. 
I  would  have  the  minister  never  absent,  either  from  the 
house  of  death  or  from  the  cemetery.  In  many  houses  the 
pastor  offers  prayer  before  going  out ;  but  this  will  not  suf- 
fice ;  he  ought  to  attend  the  burial,  and  there  should  be 
another  service,  either  at  the  open  tomb  or  in  the  church. 
Some  words  from  the  Bible,  and  a  prayer  besides,  are  in  all 
45 


530  PASTOKAL    OFFICE. 

cases  sufEcient."  If,  indeed,  remarks  are  made  at  the 
funeral,  they  should  be  simple,  devotional,  leading  the 
thoughts  to  dwell  on  immortality,  and  upon'  him  who  is 
the  Giver  of  immortality.  In  referring  to  the  deceased 
person,  they  should  not  attempt  detailed  characterization, 
especially  if  the  character  is  not  such  as  might  be  com- 
mended and  imitated;  and,  above  all,  no  allusion  should  be 
made  to  the  faults  of  the  deceased  ;  for  such  remarks  would 
but  pain  the  hearts  of  friends,  and  do  good  to  no  one.  Let 
us  trust  to  the  reflections  of  rational  beings  at  such  a  time, 
and  to  the  power  of  God's  presence,  and  of  the  realization 
of  eternal  things  in  death,  rather  than  to  anything  we  can  say. 
Sometimes  a  pastor  is  called  upon  to  preach  a  formal  funer- 
al sermon  where  the  deceased  has  been  a  person  of  eminent 
piet}',  or  of  distinguished  public  character.  In  such  a  ser- 
mon, inordinate  or  indiscriminate  praise  should  be  avoided, 
and  one  had  better  keep  inside  than  outside  of  the  truth. 
The  discourse  should  have,  in  any  case,  a  predominating 
religious  tone,  not  being  confined  wholly  to  personal  biogra- 
phy, or  description,  which  should  be  brief  and  truthful ;  and 
in  case  the  deceased  were  a  true  believer,  the  whole  service 
should  be  filled  with  the  spirit  of  praise  and  hope,  instead  of 
sorrow ;  for  it  is  Avell  to  let  the  world  know  that  the  death 
of  the  Christian  is  "gain  ;  "  that  the  woe  is  past,  the  shadows 
have  fled  away,  the  life  has  come,  and  the  joy  of  the  Lord 
has  risen  upon  the  soul.  "  For  if  the  dead  did  die  in  the 
Lord,  then  there  is  jo}"^  to  him  and  it  is  an  ill  expression  of 
our  afi"ection  and  our  charity,  to  weep  uncomfortably  at  a 
change  that  hath  carried  our  friend  to  a  state  of  huge  felicity. 
Nevertheless,  something  is  to  be  given  to  custom,  to  fame, 
to  nature  and  to  the  honor  of  deceased  friends.  I  am  not 
desirous  to  have  a  dry  funeral ;  some  flowers  sprinkled  over 
my  grave  would  do  well  and  comely  ;  and  a  soft  shower 
to  turn  those  flowers  into  springing  memory  or  a  fair  re- 
hearsal." ^ 

'  Jeremy  Taylor's  Holy  Living  and  Dying. 


§  43.        QUALIFICATIONS   FOR   THE   CARE   OF   SOULS.       531 


SECOND  DIVISION. 

THE    CARE    OF    SOULS. 

§  43.      Qualifications  for  the  Care  of  Souls. 

We  return  to  our  original  idea,  that  the  pastor  is  emi- 
nently an  earthly  representative  of  Christ,  the  Great  Shep- 
herd of  souls.  A  small  flock  is  assigned  to  him.  It  is 
not,  or  should  not  be,  too  large  for  his  proper  care  of 
every  member  of  it ;  for  he  is  not  merely  a  preacher  to 
the  "great  congregation,"  and  an  officer  of  the  church,  but 
he  is  the  personal  guide  and  overseer  of  every  soul  of  his 
people,  "  talxing  heed  to  the  flock  over  which  the  Holy  Ghost 
hath  made  us  overseers." 

As  a  shepherd  keeps  his  eye  on  every  sheep  of  the  flock, 
so  he  "  watches  for  soids  as  he  that  must  give  account."  All 
characters  of  men,  and  all  stages  of  religious  development, 
are  comprehended  in  one  pastoral  care :  and  how  is  the 
pastor  to  know  these  diflierences,  and  to  minister  to  them, 
unless,  as  the  Saviour  says  of  himself,  "he  searches  them 
out"? 

The  apostle  Paul  was  a  settled  pastor  for  three  years, 
and  he  speaks  of  his  pastoral  work  in  this  way  :  "  Jie  ceased 
not  to  warn  every  one  of  them  night  and  day  with  tears.''* 
In  these  words  a  great  responsibility  of  the  pastor  is  indi- 
cated, viz.,  that  he  should  be  acquainted  with  the  special 
wants  of  all  the  souls  committed  to  his  charge.  There  are 
many  who  love  to  preach,  and  find  in  preaching  a  pleasura- 
ble excitement  and  a  sense  of  power  in  exerting  influence 
on  others,  who  still  find  the  pastoral  work  irksome.  Pres- 
ident Wayland,  indeed,  thought  that  interest  in  strictly  pas- 
toral  labors  was  decidedly  on  the  decline ;    yet,  however 


532  PASTOR Ali   OFFICE. 

this  may  be,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  main  usefulness 
of  a  minister  of  Christ  lies  in  pastoral  laljors ;  and  al- 
though at  first  this  may  be  the  most  tedious,  and,  for  that 
reason,  the  most  laborious  part,  it  grows  to  be,  with  many 
pastors,  the  most  useful  and  attractive  department  of  the 
ministerial  work.  Indeed  it  is  the  testimony  of  every  ex- 
perienced minister  that  few,  if  any,  become  members  of  the 
church  who  are  not  thus  personally  visited  and  cared  for. 
A  minister's  influence  with  his  people  should  be  one  of 
mutual  confidence,  not  one  of  authority  on  his  part  and 
of  subserviency  on  theirs.  It  must  be  a  jpersonal  relation- 
ship, a  communication  of  personal  influence,  brought  about 
by  a  life  of  kindly  and  devoted  intercourse  with  the  people, 
so  that,  in  some  faint  degree,  it  may  be  said  of  the  under- 
shepherd,  as  it  was  said  of  Christ  himself,  "/  hyiow  my 
sheep,  and  am  known  of  mine."  ^^  My  slieej^  hear  my  voice^ 
and  they  follow  me." 

Many  a  man  who  is  not  a  great  preacher  has  accom- 
plished more  by  his  strictly  pastoral  labors  than  another 
man  has  done  by  brilliant  and  profound  preaching;  and 
this  is  not  derogating  from  the  first  place  which  preaching 
holds.  Vinet  says,  "  Public  preaching  is  comparatively 
easy  and  agreeable  ;  only  then  can  we  be  sure  of  our  voca- 
tion to  the  ministry,  when  we  are  inwardly  drawn  and  con- 
strained to  the  exercise  of  the  care  of  souls."  He  says 
also  that  "preaching  to  the  pastoral  work  is  as  a  part  to  the 
whole."  The  German  writer  Harms  thought,  as  we  have 
noticed,  that  preaching  was  the  least  important  part  of  the 
pastoral  oflSce,  and,  in  some  respects,  that  which  might  be 
spared  with  the  least  disadvantage ;  although  we  cannot 
agree  with  that,  yet  when  a  minister  declares  that  he  is 
not  able  to  make  pastoral  visits  because  his  pulpit  labors 
are  so  great,  then  his  heart  is  getting  cold ;  he  has  either 
too  large  a  parish,  or  he  makes  too  much  of  his  pulpit. 

Dr.  Wayland  recommends  a  young  man  to  settle  in  a 
small  parish,  for  either  he  will  be  unfaithful  to  all  the  duties 


§  43.   QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  CAEE  OF  SOULS.   533 

of  a  large  parish,  or  he  will  soon  break  clown  under  his  la- 
bors ;  and  it  is  assuredly  a  scriptural  principle  to  begin  at 
the  lowest  place ;  for,  if  one  is  worthy,  he  will  be  called 
up  higher,  or  he  will  make  a  small  place  a  large  place, 
and  cause  it  to  yield  a  hundred  fold. 

There  is  a  fearful  want  or  waste  of  ministerial  power 
somewhere.  There  is  a  laying  out  for  greater  things  than 
the  actual  returns  show.  There  is  a  long  and  studious 
preparation  and  small  fruits  in  the  actual  work  of  the 
ministry.  There  is  great  science  and  little  skill.  Simpler 
men  with  simpler  means  have  accomplished  more.  One 
reason  of  this  failure,  doubtless,  is,  that  ministers  are  too 
ambitious  for  great  things,  for  striking  results,  and  do  not 
take  pains  enough  with  the  details  of  their  work ;  they  do 
not  find  out  and  minister  to  the  real  wants  of  their  people. 
They  do  not  strip  off  their  classical  armor,  and  come  down 
into  close  and  familiar  contact  with  the  feelings,  characters, 
anxieties,  sorrows,  and  sins  of  their  flock.  They  are  not, 
in  fact,  good  pastors.  It  is  the  good  pastor  who  knits  him- 
self to  the  hearts  of  his  people.  It  is  the  man  who,  like 
the  apostle,  goes  from  house  to  house,  and  heart  to  heart, 
and  does  this,  year  in  and  year  out. 

We  would,  therefore,  say,  as  a  general  remark,  that  an 
indispensable  requisite  of  a  successful  pastorate  is,  that  the 
pastor  should  become  personaUi/  acquainted  with  evert/  one 
of  his  people.  That  may  seem  to  be  a  matter  of  course, . 
but  is  by  no  means  so,  especially  in  large  city  congrega- 
tions. In  order  to  effect  this  result,  the  pastor  should  make 
a  careful  and  particular  study  of  his  parish.  That  is  his 
assigned  field,  and  he  should  know  it  thoroughly,  if  he. 
knows  nothing  out  of  it.  He  should  know  his  people  indi- 
vidually, and  then  he  will  know  them  collectively.  He  can 
best  reach  and  influence  the  mass  through  individual  men. 
He  should  penetrate  beneath  an  outside  acquaintance  with 
his  people,  and  should  strive  to  know  something  of  their 
varieties  of  character,  their  peculiarities  of  disposition,  their 
45* 


534  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

mental  maladies  and  speculative  opinions,  as  well  as  their 
external  history  and  circumstances. 

There  is  a  remarkable  passage  quoted  in  Coleman's  An- 
tiquities (pp.  171,  172)  from  Gregory  of  Nazianzen,  which 
shows  that  this  necessity  was  early  appreciated  in  the 
church.  "Man,"  this  father  says,  "is  so  various  and  uncer- 
tain a  creature,  that  it  requires  great  art  and  skill  to  man- 
age him.  For  the  tempers  of  men's  minds  differ  more  than 
the  features  and  lineaments  of  their  bodies ;  and,  as  all 
meats  and  medicines  are  not  proper  for  all  bodies,  so 
neither  is  the  same  treatment  and  discipline  proper  for  all 
souls.  Some  are  best  moved  by  words,  others  by  examples  ; 
some  are  of  a  dull  and  heavy  temper,  and  so  have  need  of 
the  spur  to  stimulate  them ;  others  that  are  brisk  and  fieiy, 
have  more  need  of  the  curb  to  restrain  them.  Praise  works 
best  upon  some,  and  reproof  upon  others,  provided  that 
each  of  them  be  ministered  in  a  suitable  and  seasonable 
way  ;  otherwise  they  do  more  harm  than  good.  Some  men 
are  drawn  by  gentle  exhortations  to  their  duty ;  others,  by 
rebukes  and  hard  words,  must  be  driven  to  it.  And  even 
in  this  business  of  reproof,  some  men  are  affected  most 
with  open  rebukes,  others  with  private.  For  some  men 
never  regard  a  secret  reproof,  who  yet  are  easily  corrected, 
if  chastised  in  public ;  others  again  cannot  bear  a  public 
disgrace,  but  grow  either  morose,  or  impatient  and  implaca- 
ble under  it,  who,  perhaps,  would  have  hearkened  to  a 
secret  admonition,  and  repaid  their  monitor  with  their  con- 
cession, as  presuming  him  to  have  accosted  them  out  of 
mere  pity  and  love.  Some  men  are  to  be  so  nicely  watched 
and  observed,  that  not  the  least  of  their  faults  are  to  be  dis- 
sembled, because  they  seek  to  hide  their  sins  from  men,  and 
arrogate  to  themselves  thereupon  the  praise  of  being  politic 
and  crafty ;  in  others  it  is  better  to  wink  at  some  faults,  so 
that  seeing  we  will  not  see,  and  hearing  we  will  not  hear, 
lest  by  too  frequent  chidings  we  bring  them  to  despair,  and 
so  make  them  cast  off  modesty,  and  grow  bolder  in  their 


§    43.       QUALIFICATIONS   ]fOR   THE    CARE    OF   SOULS.       535 

sins.  To  some  men  we  must  put  on  an  angry  countenance, 
and  seem  to  deplore  their  condition,  and  to  despair  of  tliem 
as  lost  and  pitiable  wretches,  when  their  nature  so  requires 
it ;  others  again  must  be  treated  with  meekness  and  humil- 
ity, and  be  recovered  to  a  better  hope  and  encouraging 
prospects.  Some  men  must  be  always  conquered  and  never 
yielded  to ;  whilst  to  others  it  will  be  better  to  concede  a 
little.  For  all  men's  distempers  are  not  to  be  cured  in  the 
same  way ;  but  proper  medicines  are  to  be  applied,  as  the 
matter  itself,  or  occasion,  or  the  temper  of  the  patient  will 
allow.  And  this  is  the  most  difficult  part  of  the  pastoral 
office,  to  know  how  to  distinguish  these  things  nicely,  with 
an  exact  judgment,  and  with  as  exact  a  hand  to  administer 
suitable  remedies  to  every  distemper.  It  is  a  masterpiece 
of  art,  which  is  not  to  be  attained  but  by  good  ol)servation, 
joined  with  experience  and  practice."  In  connection  with 
-this  passage,  we  quote  the  following  one  in  the  same  vein 
from  Baxter  :  "  Our  taking  heed  to  all  the  flock  necessarily 
supposes  that  we  should  know  every  person  that  belongs 
to  our  charge ;  for  how  can  we  take  heed  to  them  if  we  do 
not  know  them  ?  We  must  labor  to  be  acquainted  as  fully 
as  we  can,  not  only  with  the  persons,  but  with  the  state  of 
our  people ;  their  lives  and  conversations ;  what  are  the 
sins  they  are  most  in  danger  of;  what  duties  they  neglect, 
both  with  respect  to  the  matter  and  the  manner ;  and  to 
what  temptations  they  are  peculiarly  liable.  If  we  know 
not  the  temperament  or  the  disease,  we  are  likely  to  prove 
unsuccessful  physicians." 

This  pastoral  skill  is  something  different  from  a  Shak- 
speare's  knowledge  of  the  human  heart ;  it  is  something 
which  must  be  given  a  man  from  above ;  it  is  a  spiritual 
insight,  a  knowledge  of  the  soul  and  its  wants,  that  can  be 
communicated  only  by  the  Spirit  that  searcheth  the  deep 
things  of  God  and  man.  This  constant  and  close  study  of 
the  people  is  the  pastor's  out-door  study,  no  less  impor- 
tant than  his  in-door  study  —  no  less  absorbing  and  grand. 


536  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

The  preaching  on  the  "Lord's  day,"  maybe  considered 
to  be  the  common  food ;  it  is  giving  the  bread  of  life  to  all, 
and  is  needed  by  all  equally ;  but  the  pastoral  work  is  a 
more  careful  distribution  of  truth  to  each  soul  according  to 
its  peculiar  necessities.  It  is  not  the  pleasantest  part  of 
the  physician's  work  to  search  into  the  causes  of  disease, 
but  this  must  be  done  ;  ♦and  it  is  needful  sometimes  to  use 
the  probe  or  the  knife.  The  pastor  should  take  up  this 
work  with  firmness,  patience,  and  skill. 

A  form  of  objection,  sometimes  made  to  the  strictly 
pastoral  work,  is  spoken  of  by  Vinet.  It  is  this ;  that  a 
pastor  supposes  that  he  is  not  personally  acceptable,  and 
cannot  make  himself  so  to  his  people.  "This  is  possible," 
Vinet  says ;  "  but  be  careful  that  you  say  this  in  good 
earnest.  Do  not  say  it  after  a  first  and  indolent  effort. 
Why,  do  you  expect  doors  to  open  themselves  to  3'ou  at 
your  mere  approach?  We  are  in  general  too  hasty  in  saying 
that  we  are  not  acceptable.  There  are  many  more  ways  of 
access  than  we  suppose,  because  there  are  more  necessities, 
more  accessible  sides,  more  occasions  than  we  think  of.  Our 
ministry  is  not  so  sure  to  be  repelled  when  it  exhibits  itself 
under  the  form  of  Christian  affection." 

"Were  I  again  to  be  a  parish  minister,"  said  Leighton, 
"  I  would  follow  sinners  to  their  homes,  and  even  to  their 
ale-houses."  Doddrid2:e  wrote  on  his  return  from  an  ordi- 
nation,  "  I  have  manj^  cares  and  troubles ;  may  God  forgive 
me  that  I  am  so  apt  to  forget  those  of  the  pastoral  office  ! 
I  now  resolve  to  take  a  more  particular  account  of  the  souls 
committed  to  my  care ;  to  visit  as  soon  as  possible  the 
whole  congregation,  to  learn  more  particularly  the  circum- 
stances of  them,  their  children  and  servants ;  to  make  as 
exact  a  list  as  I  can  of  those  that  I  have  reason  to  believe 
are  unconverted,  awakened,  converted,  fit  for  communion, 
or  already  in  it ;  to  visit  and  talk  with  my  people  when  I 
hear  anything  in  particular  relating  to  their  religious  state ; 
to  be  especially  careful  to  visit  the  sick ;  to  begin  immedi- 


§  43.   QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  CARE  OF  SOULS.   537 

ately  with  the  mspection  of  those  under  my  own  roof,  that 
I  may  with  the  greater  freedom  urge  other  families  to  like 
care.     O,  my  soul,  thy  account  is  great !  " 

The  example  of  Dr.  Chalmers  is  thus  given :  "  Not 
satisfied  with  merely  proclaiming  the  doctrines  of  the 
gospel  from  the  pulpit  on  the  Sabbath, -not  satisfied  even 
with  putting  into  that  presentation  all  the  energy  of  his 
regal  intellect,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  his  afiectionate  heart, 
gathering  about  the  truth  all  ornaments  of  scholarship,  and 
impressing  it  by  appeals  most  clear  and  pointed,  as  by 
arguments  whose  weight  and  pressure  have  rarely  been 
surpassed  —  he  labored  also  to  carry  it  familiarl}^  from  house 
to  house,  throughout  the  week.  He  interested  himself 
personally  and  warmly  in  the  families  of  his  pariyh.  He 
knew  the  children  and  the  aged,  as  well  as  the  active  of 
middle  life.  He  knew  the  circumstances,  characteristics, 
history  of  many  of  his  people.  And  he  was  always  ready 
with  his  word  of  counsel,  his  suggestive,  practical,  or 
doctrinal  instruction,  his  free  presentation  of  Christ,  and 
his  fitness  to  the  soul.  He  aimed  and  desired  to  have  his 
speech  distil  as  the  dew,  in  the  constant  day-to-day  inter- 
course of  life.  He  meant  to  speak  to  his  people  through 
his  example  as  his  words  ;  and  whenever  a  case  occurred  of 
special  difficulty,  requiring  peculiar  tact  and  skill  in  its 
management,  it  was  affecting  to  see  with  what  earnestness 
of  thought,  and  what  fervor  of  prayer  this  noble  and  shining 
mind  devoted  itself  to  the  work  of  enli2;htenin2r  the  iijnorant, 
or  of  cheering  the  downcast,  or  of  impressing  and  awaken- 
ing the  long  impenitent." 

But  to  bring  this  matter  to  a  point,  we  would  mention 
some  of  the  needful  qualifications  for  the  pastoral  care  of 
souls,  without  dwelling  upon  them. 

(1.)  Self-knowledge.  This  is  such  a  knowledge  of 
human  nature  as  one  gets  from  a  knowledge  of  his  own 
heart ;  and  for  that  purpose  let  the  pastor  thoughtfully  note 
his  own  spiritual  experience,  to  guide  him  in  the  care  of 


538  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

souls ;  for,  "«s  in  ivater  face  ansiceretlt  to  face,  so  the  heart 
of  man  to  man.^' 

(2.)    An  attractive  and  friendly  manner. 

(3.)  Adaptation  to  time,  place,  and  occasion.  The  pas- 
tor should  have  a  word  iu  season  for  every  situation  and 
condition  in  which  he  may  hapjicn  to  find  a  family  or  a 
soul.  He  should  never  allow  himself  to  be  thrown  off  his 
balance  by  a  sudden  assault  made  upon  him.  He  should 
take  his  people  on  their  own  ground,  and  lead  them  gradu- 
ally and  easily,  without  jar,  up  to  his  own  standard.  He 
should  understand  the  peculiarities  in  the  circumstances  and 
history  of  his  own  parish,  not  attacking  deep-rooted  preju- 
dices with  hasty  zeal,  but  patiently  guiding  and  instructing 
his  people.  He  should  study  men  by  classes  as  well  as  by 
individuals,  and  he  cannot,  on  the  other  hand,  do  this  better 
than  by  studying  individual  men;  for,  as  it  has  been  said, 
"  he  who  knows  one  man  thoroughly,  knows  a  whole  class." 
If  the  people  gain  the  impression  that  the  pastor  understands 
them,  they  will  the  more  readily  give  him  their  confidence, 
and  regard  his  counsel. 

(4.)  A  particula7'izin(/ and  systematic  method.  George 
Herbert  said,  "If  the  parson  comes  to  be  afraid  oi  par- 
ticularizing in  those  things,  he  were  not  fit  to  be  a  parson." 
This  particular  attention  to  detail  is  an  element  of  success 
in  any  great  enterprise  ;  it  is  not  treating  the  people  in  the 
gross,  but  in  the  grain ;  it  is  knowing  their  names,  his- 
tories, characters,  families,  places  of  business.  There  is, 
indeed,  much  of  the  genuine  business  talent  required  in  the 
pastor's  business  ;  for  it  is  a  business,  a  work.  The  apostle 
writes,  ^^If  a  man  deslreth  the  office  of  a  bishop),  he  desireth 
a  good  icork."  Bengel,  commenting  on  this  passage,  calls 
the  ministerial  office  ^^  negotium,  non  otiuin."  It  must  be 
entered  upon  and  carried  along  with  the  same  earnest  spirit, 
the  same  minute  attention  to  particulars,  the  same  thought- 
ful adaptation  of  means  to  ends,  as  those  by  which  any 
important  secular  business  is  carried  on  and  rendered  sue- 


§  43.       QUALIFICATIONS   FOR   THE   CAEE   OF   SOULS.       539 

cessful.  Id  the  pastoral  work,  as  in  any  other,  effects  will 
not  be  reached  unless  essential  preliminaries  are  properly 
attended  to  and  secured. 

(5.)  Personal  influence  outside  of  purely  ministerial 
influence.  It  is  this  power  of  personally  attaching  men  to 
himself,  especially  the  young,  which  makes  a  pastor  potent 
with  his  people.  An  enthusiasm  for  the  pastor  as  a  man  ;  as 
a  desirable  companion ;  as  one  who  knows  something,  and 
can  do  something,  and  can  say  something,  besides  preach- 
ing; as  a  genial,  wholesome,  attractive,  magnetic  man;  as 
a  magnanimous  and  heroic  man,  who  is  capable  of  generous 
deeds, — this  is  a  vast  help.  Professor  Park,  in  an  article 
upon  the  late  Dr.  Clark,  speaking  of  his  free  and  pleasant 
intercourse  with  men,  quotes  the  saying  of  Martin  Luther : 
"  As  life  cannot  pass  without  society,  it  becomes  thee  to 
believe  that  thou  pleasest  God  when  thou  speakest  to  thy 
brother  with  a  jocund  countenance,  when  thou  iuvitest  him 
to  pleasantry  by  a  cheery  laugh,  and  when  thou  sometimes 
delightest  him  with  a  facetious  and  shrewd  remark."^ 

This  genial  and  attractive  talent,  when  not  carried  to  an 
extreme,  unlocks  hearts,  and  wins  their  confidence.  One 
may  preach  the  gospel  by  his  looks  and  smile  and  hearty 
hand-grasp,  as  well  as  in  words. 

(6.)  A  true  absorbing  love  of  souls.  That  is  the  love  of 
that  which  is  best,  the  immortal  jewel,  in  the  nature ;  and 
that  love  may  be,  and  should  be,  a  genuine  thing,  without 
the  slightest  shadow  of  dissimulation.  It  is  a  sincere  yearn- 
ing and  solicitude  for  the  welfare  of  every  soul  comprised 
in  the  pastoral  charge.  That  is  a  love  which  will  bear  almost 
any  strain  put  upon  it,  any  injustice,  coldness,  coarseness, 
or  insult.  When  one  has  a  determination  springing  from 
love,  and  wrought  in  prayer,  to  save,  a  soul,  and  every  soul 
of  his  people,  he  will  not  be  repulsed  by  unlvindness,  nor 
by  manifest  aversion  and  hostility.     He  takes  Jesus  as  his 

'  Cong.  Quarterly,  January,  1862. 


540  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

example  of  loug-sufFering  patience,  whose  brethren  received 
him  not,  and  yet  whose  love  was  perfect  toward  all.  He 
knows  that  sin  and  selfishness  may  so  entirely  rule  a  heart, 
and  destroy  what  is  good  and  noble  in  it,  that  it  is  really 
incapable  of  regarding  God's  truth,  or  his  messenger,  with 
common  respect.  Love  has  pity.  Depend  upon  it,  love 
reigns  in  the  pastoral  office.  One  can  do  nothing  for  souls 
without  it.  By  it  the  sheep  of  the  flock  are  led  along. 
It  comprehends  all  other  things  and  qualifications ;  it 
hopeth  all  things ;  it  endureth  all  things ;  it  believeth  all 
things ;  it  might  reverently  be  added,  it  accomplishes  all 
things.  The  best  gift  of  God  to  the  pastor  is  the  power  of 
loving. 

7.  An  earnest,  Jiopefid,  and  courageous  faith.  "A  man 
may  possibly  meet  with  some  formal  minister  that  knows 
little  of  Christ,  and  loves  him  less,  who  yet  can  tell  such  an 
inquirer  that  by  believing  he  shall  find  him,  and  instruct 
him  somewhat  about  tlie  notion  of  faith,  and  inseparable 
repentance,  and  leaving  off  sin,  which  things  he  himself 
who  directs  makes  no  use  of,  hath  no  experience  at  all  of; 
yet  may  his  information  be  useful  to  the  soul  seeking 
Christ,  and  in  following  them  it  may  find  him."  ^  But  if 
the  guide  be  a  man  of  ardent  faith,  who  believes  that  the 
truth  of  the  cross  is  "  tJie  power  of  God  unto  salvation  "how 
much  better,  surer  a  guide  !  The  earnestness  of  the  apos- 
tles and  first  pastors  was  one,  in  Luther's  phrase,  "from 
the  bottom  of  the  heart."  The  believing  man  was  behind 
what  he  spoke.  He  was  not  a  mere  l^razeu  trumpet  for  the 
breath  of  God  to  fill.  He  was  himself  a  living  power, 
made  so  by  the  spirit  of  Christ,  which  inspired  his  own 
faculties  in  contact  with  the  divine  and  infinite.  Thus 
Christ  exalts  and  purifies  a  man  when  he  chooses  him  to 
do  his  w^ork.  He  does  not  reduce  him  to  something  less 
than  a  man ;  but  he  frees  and  fills  with  a  divine  potency 

'  Archbishop  Leighton's  Lectures  on  St.  Matthew's  Gospel. 


§  43.   QUALIFICATIONS  FOR  THE  CARE  OF  SOULS.   541 

every  power  and  affection.  Whenever  that  exquisite  adjust- 
ment takes  place,  of  the  man's  own  spirit  and  life  to  the 
spirit  and  truth  of  what  he  teaches,  he  is  recognized  by  men 
as  a  true  pastor  of  souls.  Now,  although  a  peculiar  prep- 
aration is  needed  for  this  care  of  souls,  it  "is  a  common 
error  to  think,  that  it  is  entirely,  or  almost  entirely,  an  in- 
tellectual preparation;  whereas  it  is,  above  all,  a  spiritual 
preparation.  As  it  is  Christ's  work,  he  alone  can  and  must 
fit  a  man  for  it ;  for  neither  Augustine,  nor  Turretin,  any 
more  than  Plato  or  Hegel,  nor  any  human  instructor,  can 
tit  a  man  to  win  souls.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  entire 
seminary  of  these  divine  germs  of  power  and  success  in  the 
pastoral  work.  Christ  must  breathe  upon  his  disciples, 
and  endue  them  with  power.  George  Herbert  says,  "The 
greatest  and  hardest  preparation  is  within."  It  is  a  mind 
that  lays  itself  at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  and  cries,  "  Cleanse 
TJiou  me  from  secret  faults  !  I  would  not  be  paralyzed 
in  my  efforts  to  win  souls  by  the  love  of  any  evil  thing 
whatsoever ;  but  I  would  3'ield  myself  up  to  thee,  O  divine 
Master,  to  use  and  shape  me  as  thou  wilt."  It  is  this  hum- 
ble and  self-emptied  state  that  makes  a  man  receptive  of 
higher  power ;  and  then  God  flows  in  by  the  influence  of 
his  Spirit,  and  fills  the  man  with  power.  Then  the  tongue 
of  flame  descends  upon  him ;  then  men  recognize  him  as 
a  divine  messenger ;  then  he  will  speak  to  the  dying  soul 
of  the  risen  Redeemer  with  words  of  faith  and  power ; 
then  he  will  be  the  means  of  kindling  in  dark  spirits  the 
immortal  hope  of  Christ.  They  will  awake  to  his  earnest 
entreaties,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  will  use  him  as  a  powerful 
instrument  to  apply  to  their  hearts  the  renewing  word. 
One  man  is  the  pre-ordained  instrument  of  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  another.  The  electric  current  runs  from  heart 
to  heart.  The  disciple  who  brought  his  friend  to  Jesus  was 
the  appointed  means  of  eternal  good  to  the  soul  of  his 
friend,  and  of  winning  it  to  God. 
46 


542  PASTOKAL   OFFICE. 


§  44.    Pastoral  Visiting. 

The  family  may  be  said  to  be  as  truly  a  divine  institution 
as  the  church ;  and  the  church  itself  is  but  an  extension  of 
the  family  idea.  The  Christian  church  is  a  large  household, 
a  wider  brotherhood,  a  perpetually  expanding  body  of  fam- 
ilies united  in  Christ,  the  Head. 

The  pastor  is  peculiarly  a  leader  of  fiunilies —  "a  leader 
offiocli-s."  God  himself,  in  the  Psalms,  is  thus  represented 
as  a  Shepherd,  Avho  ''leads  Josej)h  (Joseph's  household)  as 
ajlocl'.'" 

It  is  good  for  the  pastor  to  view  his  people  in  this 
family  light,  especially  in  its  relations  to  the  duty  of  pas- 
toral visitation ;  he  should  know  his  people  in  their  own 
homes,  where  their  true  character  shows  itself;  he  should 
appreciate  the  strength  and  depth  of  family  ties  and  sym- 
pathies ;  and  he  should  understand  and  use  them  for  good. 
Wliat  is  the  true  idea  of  a  pastoral  visit? 

President  Wayland  thus  describes  it :  "  The  visiting  to 
which  I  refer  is  a  very  different  thing.  In  urging  the  duty 
of  pastoral  visitation,  I  would  suggest  that  a  minister  should 
devote  a  large  portion  of  his  time  to  the  duty  of  private 
conversation,  with  every  member  of  his  congregation,  on 
the  subject  of  personal  religion.  In  visiting  a  family  for 
this  purpose,  I  suppose  he  should  endeavor  to  converse 
with  every  individual  separately ;  or,  if  this  be  not  possi- 
ble, that  he  should  set  before  them  all  the  duty  of  repent- 
ance and  faith  in  Christ,  and,  if  there  be  no  special  obsta- 
cle, that  he  should  close  the  interview  with  prayer.  Of 
course  there  should  be  in  this  nothing  stiff,  formal,  severe, 
or  forbiddins;.  The  minister  is  doing  nothins:  but  what  his 
relation  to  his  hearers  absolutely  requires.  They  have 
chosen  him  to  take  the  care  of  their  souls,  and  use  every 
means  in  his  power  to  save  them  from  eternal  death.  They 
believe  in  the  truths  which  he  preaches,  or  they  would  not 


§  44.       PASTORAL   VISITING.  543 

have  chosen  him  to  be  their  minister.  If  his  labors  on  the 
Sabbath  have  been  ineffectual,  it  is  certainly  reasonable 
that  he  should  see  thera  in  private,  and  press  upon  them 
individually  the  truths  which  they  have  thus  far  neglected." 

We  would  suggest,  as  an  amendment  to  that  good  advice, 
—  good,  if  it  could  be  carried  out, — that  the  pastoral  visit 
should  not  be  expected,  as  a  rule,  to  be  a  strictly  religious 
visit ;  that  there  should  be  no  rule  in  regard  to  it  which 
could  not  be  departed  from  ;  for  if  there  were,  it  would  be- 
come a  form,  and  lose  its  power  for  good.  All  spontaneity 
would  be  taken  out  of  it,  and  it  might  come  to  such  a  pass, 
that  many  people  would  avoid  their  minister  when  he  visited 
them,  or  if  they  should  see  him,  they  would  shut  up  their 
hearts  to  him,  and  not  appear  in  their  true  character.  The 
visit  of  a  minister,  like  that  of  any  other  man,  should  be, 
first  of  all,  of  a  friendly  and  social  nature  ;  for  he  is  a  man 
before  he  is  a  minister. 

While  we  do  nol  think  that  "  preaching,"  technically 
speaking,  should  be  done  in  a  pastoral  visit,  yet,  it  must 
be  said,  that  this  is  not  a  visit  of  mere  ordinary  etiquette 
or  friendship ;  it  is  the  visit  of  the  appointed  guide  of  the 
souls  of  a  family :  and  though  it  cannot  always,  from 
obvious  circumstances,  assume  a  definitely  religious  charac- 
ter, and  ought  never  to  be  made  in  a  perfunctory  spirit,  as 
if  it  were  the  discharge  of  an  ofiicial  obligation,  it  should, 
nevertheless,  be  recognized  and  felt  to  be  the  visit  of  the 
pastor,  i.  e.,  of  him  who  is  the  spiritual  guide  of  the  family. 
When  this  is  generally  and  clearly  understood,  the  visit 
will  naturally  have  a  certain  character  and  aim ;  and  then 
the  family  will  be  more  likely  to  aid  in  making  the  visit 
one  of  profit  to  themselves. 

Let  us  now  look  at  some  of  the  uses  of  pastoral  visiting. 

1.  To  bring  the  truth  to  bear  ujjon  the  soul  of  individual 
men.  Truth  from  the  j)ulpit  depends  for  success  upon  the 
receptivity  of  the  hearer's  own  mind,  and  this  is  generally 
uncertain  and  precarious ;  a  wind  of  temptation,  a  breath 


544  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

of  worldly  influence,  may  dissipate  in  a  moment  the  good 
impression  of  the  truth ;  but  private  conversation,  pressed 
home  with  the  earnestness  of  a  strong  and  affectionate  will, 
serves  to  fix  truth ;  for  the  impelling  power  of  another 
nature  is  added  to  the  impressibility  of  the  hearer's  own 
mind.  If,  therefore,  truth  has  been  sown  by  the  pulpit, 
it  will  be  found  that  pastoral  conversation  has  been  the 
great  human  agency  of  nourishing  the  seed  sown.  Minis- 
ters are  sometimes  surprised  that  their  labored  preaching  is 
no  more  effective  :  it  may  be  ineflfectual  because  they  do  not 
follow  it  up  with  personal  instruction.  They  leave  the 
birds  of  the  air  to  catch  up  and  devour  the  seed,  or  the 
cares  of  the  world  to  choke  it ;  what  different  results  can 
they  expect?  'The  care  of  a  wounded  limb  is  great,  but 
a  wounded  spirit  how  much  more  a  subject  of  unwearied 
and  tender  care.  Great  wisdom  is  certainly  required  to 
give  the  truth  its  personal  application  in  conversation  with 
families  and  individuals.  The  simple  repetition  sometimes 
of  a  significant  text  of  Scripture,  when  it  is  a  word  in 
season,  is  powerful  for  good.  It  is  well  to  store  up  such 
inspiring  and  strengthening  texts,  to  leave  as  gifts,  with 
a  few  Avords  of  comment  and  application,  in  the  houses 
of  the  people.  The  scriptural  figure  is  the  best  as  well  as 
most  beautiful  of  sowing  the  truth,  dropping  it  in  every 
place,  in  every  heart ;  and  even  if  some  seed  fails  to  take 
root,  and  perishes,  was  not  that  the  case  with  the  Great 
Sower  himself  ? 

2.  To  win  the  confidence  of  the  people.  When  the  minis- 
ter is  seen  only  in  the  pulpit  on  Sunday,  he  is  still  a 
stranger,  and  his  voice  is  the  voice  of  a  stranger ;  he  may 
be  admired  and  respected,  but  he  cannot  be  loved,  for  there 
must  be  something  personal  in  the  relation  to  make  it  a 
strong  one.  By  visiting  his  people  in  their  own  houses, 
and  entering  into  their  hopes,  sorrows,  and  joys,  rejoicing 
with  those  that  rejoice,  and  weeping  with  those  that  weep, 
the  pastor  becomes  a  man  who    is  sincerely  trusted  and 


§   44.       PASTORAL   VISITING.  545 

loved.  Each  begins  to  look  upon  hira  as  his  personal 
friend.  People  seeing  that  he  has  a  sincere  interest  in 
them,  that  he  has  no  selfish  end  to  gain  in  his  intercourse 
with  them,  will  begin  to  give  him  their  confidence. 

3.  To  promote  attendance  upon  public  worsldp,  and  atten- 
tion to  all  Christian  duties.  Where  the  pastor  is  seen  and 
known  familiarly,  the  people  are  attracted  to  follow  him  to 
the  prayer  meeting  and  the  house  of  God ;  for  this,  then, 
becomes  a  matter  of  personal  obligation.  The  father  of  a 
family  says,  "If  my  minister  takes  the  trouble  to  come  and 
see  me,  I  will  go  and  hear  him."  Thus  the  loAver  motive 
may  lead  to  the  performing  of  the  higher  duty,  or,  at  least, 
may  draw  men  to  the  place  where  they  may  be  spiritually 
benefited ;  and  the  pastor  can  also,  by  direct  conversation, 
bring  them  up  to  this  duty. 

A  good  pastor,  too,  not  merely  for  the  sake  of  acquiring 
influence,  but  from  the  real  love  of  his  people,  looks  after 
the  good  of  his  flock  in  temporal  matters.  Oberlin  took 
a  measuring  chain  and  spade  in  hand,  and  directed  in  making 
a  road  among  the  mountains,  which  opened  communication 
between  his  obscure  village  and  the  outer  world,  and  thus  be- 
came a  benefactor  of  his  people  in  things  they  could  not  deny. 

If  a  pastor  does  not  visit  his  people,  what  can  he  know 
of  their  characters  and  wants,  except  by  hearsay?  There 
may  be  persons,  or  families,  starving  in  his  parish,  of 
whom  he  is  totally  ignorant.  The  poor  are  to  be  searched 
out,  and  not  merely  to  be  inquired  after.  A  minister  who 
does  not  continually  go  around  among  his  people,  cannot 
know  all  their  moral  wants  and  dangers, — the  concealed 
intemperance,  profligacy,  and  vices  among  them  —  tho 
spread  of  depraving  opinions, — the  temptations  of  youth. 
A  minister  should  not  be  a  police  ofiicer,  or  a  moral  inquisi- 
tor, but  he  should  be  a  true  "watchman,"  and  should  use 
all  proper  diligence  and  vigilance  to  detect  the  presence 
of  evil  in  the  flock  he  is  set  over.  One  may,  for  example, 
properly  ask  and  find  out  about  the  reading  of  his  people, 
46* 


546  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

—  no  unimportant  source  of  influence  for  good  or  evil, 
and  may  counsel  and  direct  in  that  matter,  by  the  taste 
for  sound  and  healthy  reading  among  the  young.  He 
may  give  practical  hints  in  relation  to  anything  that  will 
tend  to  improve  his  people,  and  increase  their  comfort 
and  happiness.  A  simple  suggestion  to  a  poor  family  in 
regard  to  the  proper  ventilation  of  a  house,  or  an  apartment 

—  the  best  mode  of  planting  a  field,  or  of  making  a  garden, 
or  of  mending  a  gate,  is  a  kindness  in  itself,  and  will  build 
up  an  influence  for  good. 

4.  To  ohtain  profitable  topics  for  the  pulpit.  A  man  may 
preach  fairly  on  admitted  truths  ;  but  if  it  is  seen  that  his 
preaching  has  no  particular  application  to  his  own  people, 
and  to  their  needs,  their  interest  in  him,  as  an  instructor 
and  guide,  is  gradually  undermined ;  but  a  sermon  which 
is  inspired  by  a  personal  conversation,  or  a  pastoral  visit, 
has  an  element  of  life  in  it,  which  is  worth  far  more  than  a 
sermon  drawn  from  books.  It  meets  a  real  want ;  it  is  a 
vital  communication  from  the  speaker  to  his  hearers. 
Springing  up  within  the  circle  of  the  parish,  out  of  its  needs 
and  circumstances,  it  will  verify  the  words  of  President 
Wayland,  "  As  the  minister  looks  upon  his  hearers  with  the 
consciousness  that  he  has  before  him  friends  with  whose 
moral  condition  he  is  familiar,  so  they  feel  that  they  are 
looking  upon  a  man  with  whom  they  are  in  full  sympathy."^ 

5.  To  give  aim  and  directness  to  prayer.  The  pastor 
who  knows  his  people  will  be  led  to  pray  for  particular 
things  and  for  particular  persons.  He  has  perhaps  ex- 
perienced great  difficulty  and  decided  repulse  in  reaching 
certain  minds ;  they  are  not  yet  open  to  the  entrance  of  the 
truth ;  they  are  in  wilful  darkness ;  his  own  efibrts  to 
awaken  and  give  light  are  vain,  and  his  only  help  is  in 
God ;  he  has  something  to  pray  for  with  all  his  heart  and 
soul,  and  not  to  let  God  go  until  he  grants  his  prayer. 

'  Ministry  of  the  Gospel,  p.  153. 


§  44.       PASTORAL   VISITING.  54T 

6.  To  quicken  the  pastor's  spirituality.  In  this  nobly 
practical  part  of  his  work,  the  deadening  influence  of 
his  official  familiarity  with  divine  truth,  linds  its  counter- 
poise. He  is  confirmed  in  his  belief  that  piety  is  a  real 
thing;  for  he  is  brought  daily  face  to  face  with  undeniable 
facts,  with  a  primitive  faith  that  has  endured  trial,  that  has 
overcome  difficult}'',  that  has  been  proved  in  the  furnace  of 
affliction.  The  "Book  of  Acts"  is  reenacted  constantly  be- 
fore him  in  the  lives  of  true  disciples.  He  is  impressed 
with  the  difference,  the  vast  difierence,  between  the  believ- 
ing and  the  unbelieving  man,  in  circumstances  of  real  trial. 
His  own  faith  is  thus  confirmed.  He  may  know  some  poor 
woman,  who,  from  her  constant  study  of  the  Bible  and  sim- 
ple trust  in  Christ,  has  had  the  lowness  of  her  mind  and 
estate  transformed  into  something  wonderfully  refined  and 
heavenly  ;  he  may  learn  celestial  wisdom  from  her  conversa- 
tion. Great  originality  of  religious  thought  is  often  found 
in  the  humblest  walks  of  life,  where  the  Spirit  of  God  has 
wrought  upon  an  originally  strong  nature ;  where  suns  and 
rains  of  divine  influence  fall  upon  a  rich  soil  and  it  produces 
fruit  spontaneously,  and  rare  fruit  it  is.  Ideas  have  a  natural 
vividness  that  seems  like  a  direct  inspiration ;  and  indeed  in 
such  a  case,  the  mind  is  primarily  taught  by  the  Spirit  and 
the  word  of  God,  instead  of  secondarily  by  men. 

7.  To  hear  the  ministry  of  the  gosjjel  to  those  who  are 
not  able  to  attend  the  public  service,  —  to  old  people  —  to 
confirmed  invalids  —  to  those  of  peculiar  mental  infirmities, 
—  all  of  whom  should  have  the  gospel  preached  to  them. 

8.  To  make  and  keep  a  society  united.  President  Way- 
land  says  upon  this  point,  "To  take  the  lowest  view  of  the 
case,  it  is  the  most  efi'ectual  means  for  keeping  a  society 
united."^  This  might  be  enlarged  upon.  Ministers  who 
are  not  good  pastors,  wonder  that  with  all  their  study  and 
striving,  their  society  is  ever  growing   smaller;    and  the 

^  Ministry  of  the  Gospel,  p.  148. 


548  PASTOKAL   OFFICE. 

cause  of  this  is  often  found  in  the  fact  that  the  people  are 
tired  of  waiting  to  become  acquainted  with  their  pastor,  and 
to  form  some  slight  bond  of  personal  interest  in  him. 

Some  of  the  disadvantages  connected  with  pastoral  visit- 
ing, which  are  to  be  guarded  against,  are,  the  sacrifice  of 
time,  —  the  making  one's  self  subject  to  the  charge  of  par- 
tiality, let  him  try  his  best  to  avoid  it,  —  the  causing  of  dissi- 
pation of  mind,  and  inability  to  concentrate  the  thoughts  on 
study. 

We  offer  two  or  three  practical  suggestions  in  regard  to 
pastoral  visiting,  although  good  sense  and  a  little  experience 
are  better  than  advice  upon  such  a  point.  Chaucer  pre- 
sents us  with  a  fit  motto  : 

"  Wide  was  his  parish,  and  houses  far  asunder, 
But  he  ne  left  nought,  for  ne  rain  ne  tluinder; 
In  sickness  and  in  mischief  to  visite 
The  ferrest  in  las  parish,  nioche  and  light 
Upon  his  fete,  and  in  his  hand  a  staff." 

(a.)  When  one  becomes  a  settled  pastor,  it  is  indispen- 
sable for  him  to  visit  the  whole  parish,  as  one  of  his  first 
duties.  None  of  the  people  should  be  neglected  in  this  first 
round  of  visits,  which,  if  the  pastor  neglects  to  make,  or 
delays  too  long,  he  loses  an  advantage  diflScult  to  be  re- 
gained ;  for  the  ardor  of  first  love,  under  too  long  neglect, 
cools.  "A  new  comer  to  a  little  place,  and  especially  a 
young  minister,  runs  a  great  risk  of  forming  friendships  too 
suddenly,  which  he  can  only  get  free  from  very  slowly,  and 
rarely  without  unpleasant  circumstances.  His  first  opinion 
may  come  to  be  very  much  changed ;  and  at  times,  people 
make  advances  to  him,  out  of  curiosity  and  with  a  selfish 
view,  whom  he  afterwards  does  not  find  it  easy  to  get  rid  of, 
when  he  can  neither  like  them  nor  trust  them.  It  Avould, 
therefore,  be  advisable  for  him  to  be  friendly  to  every  one 
on  the  first  visit,  but  not  to  bind  himself  to  any  one ;  to  bo 


§  44.      PASTORAL   VISITING.  549 

frank  and  cordial  with  all,  but  to  keep  his  mind  to  himself; 
what  is  reserved  may  be  afterwards  easily  added,  but  what 
is  let  out  too  much  cannot  be  so  easily  taken  in  again."  ^ 

(b.)  The  pastor  would  do  well  to  make  out  an  accurate  list 
of  his  parish,  with  the  name  and  residence  of  each  individ- 
ual. These  might  be  arranged  systematically,  by  neighbor- 
hoods, for  greater  convenience  in  visiting ;  for  it  is  a  great 
economy  of  time  to  take  up  different  sections  of  the  parish 
at  certain  seasons  of  the  year,  or  in  having  some  well- 
arrauged  plan.  The  circumstances  of  a  city  or  country  set- 
tlement would  of  course  greatly  modify  any  such  plan. 

(c.)  The  whole  parish  should  be  visited  at  least  once  a 
year ;  and,  if  the  society  is  a  small  one,  it  may  be  visited 
oftener. 

(d.)  A  memorandum  of  every  visit  should  be  kept;  and 
this  becomes  an  invaluable  private  journal.  Opportuni- 
ties for  benevolence  —  special  points  that  have  come  up 
in  conversation  —  mental  traits  brought  out  —  the  reli- 
gious  condition  of  families  and  individuals  —  subjects  of 
thought  and  prayer  aroused — these  little  fragmentmy  items, 
gathered  here  and  there,  by  and  by  form  a  rich  fund  to 
draw  from. 

(e.)  The  sick  should  claim  the  first  attention.  The  sick 
should  not  be  neglected,  even  if  all  the  rest  be  passed  by, 
or  if  other  duties  be  unfulfilled. 

(/".)  The  visit  should  not  be  wearisomely  long,  and  it 
should  not  be,  on  the  other  hand,  so  brief  and  hasty  as  to 
have  no  significance,  and  leave  no  impression  save  that  of 
cold  formality.  Where  there  is  the  prospect  of  doing  good 
it  should  not  be  abridged.  Of  course  good  sense  and  cir- 
cumstances should  govern  in  each  case. 

((/.)  The  visit  should  have,  as  far  as  it  is  possible,  some 
profitable,  and  better  still,  religious  character.  We  have 
remarked  upon  this,  and  thrown  out  the  oj)iuion  that  it  is 

'  Manse  of  Mastland. 


550  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

not  best  to  preach  at  such  a  time,  but  rather  to  cultivate  a 
social  feeling  of  confidence  between  pastor  and  people  ;  but 
the  visit  should  not  be  all  consumed  in  commonplace  con- 
versation. The  great  mass  of  people  are  eloquent  upon  the 
subject  of  their  bodilj^  rather  than  of  their  spiritual  ail- 
ments. On  this  last  subject,  if  it  is  introduced,  the  pastor 
must  take  the  initiative ;  and  he  must,  above  all,  in  a  mat- 
ter like  this,  seek  the  fit  moment  to  converse  upon  religion. 
If  the  pastor  has  the  true  spirit,  he  will  neglect  no  good 
opportunity  that  offers  itself  to  improve  his  people  spirit- 
ually, and  a  superior  tact  in  this  will  guide  him.  As  a  gen- 
eral rule,  let  the  pastor  strive  to  leave  some  message  of  God 
in  every  house  he  visits,  and,  like  the  Saviour,  who  sowed 
the  seed  wherever  he  went,  be  ever  leading  the  thoughts  of 
those  with  whom  he  talked  from  temporal  to  eternal 
themes, — from  the  earthly  to  the  heavenly,  by  impercept- 
ible Avays,  —  let  him  have  this  constant  aim  to  do  good  to 
the  minds  of  his  people. 

It  is  well,  even,  to  make  the  modes  or  approaches  to 
religious  conversation  a  subject  of  thought  and  study,  iu 
order  to  avoid  every  appearance  of  stiffness,  formality,  or 
cant.  We  may  study  the  good  art  of  not  being  artificial. 
Particular  themes  and  particular  ways  of  approaching  them 
and  presenting  them  in  conversation,  are  certainly  as  worthy 
of  the  serious  reflection  of  the  pastor,  as  are  the  themes  of 
the  pulpit. 

But  let  a  young  pastor  know  beforehand,  lest  he  be  dis- 
couraged, that  he  must  himself  make  the  beginning  in  reli- 
gious conversation,  and  that  he  must  expect  to  say  nearly 
all  that  is  said;  indeed,  he  will  find  comparatively  little 
response  to  what  he  says,  even  from  professed  Christians  — 
not  much  beyond  certain  formal  phrases  and  commonplaces  ; 
and  this  is  not  because  there  is  no  sincere  feeling,  but  be- 
cause people,  generally  speaking,  are  unable  to  express  their 
thoughts  and  discuss  their  feelings  on  spiritual  themes ; 
therefore  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  the  pastor  should 


§  44.      PASTORAL   VISITING.  551 

make  leading  remarks,  and  perhaps  think   beforehaiid  of 
special  topics. 

The  pastor  should  show  that  he  is  not  trying  to  pry 
into  the  heart's  secrets  even  of  a  religious  nature,  but  by 
honest  conversation  on  the  things  of  truth  and  righteous- 
ness, and  sometimes  by  questions  kindly  put,  he  should  seek 
to  know  somewhat  of  the  religious  condition  of  a  house- 
hold. Often,  a  plain  word  of  counsel  in  regard  to  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures,  to  attendance  upon  the  church  prayer' 
meeting,  to  carefulness  as  to  the  religious  instruction  of 
children,  faithfulness  to  the  duty  of  family  worship,  and  of 
private  devotion,  the  acknowledgment  of  God's  unbounded 
mercies  in  a  spirit  of  greater  thankfulness  and  benevolence, 
—  such  a  word  is  healthful. 

As  to  ending  the  pastoral  visit  with  prayer,  we  do  not  see 
how  it  can  always  or  generally  be  carrie^  out ;  yet  it  may 
be  done  whenever  it  seems  fit,  and  certainly  whenever  it  is 
requested.  The  pastor  should  strive  to  cultivate  the  devo- 
tional spirit  among  his  people,  and  to  leave  the  breath  of 
prayer  in  every  house  —  to  teach  his  people  how  to  pray. 
The  chamber  of  sickness  is  a  fit  place  for  prayer.  The 
favorable  moment  should  be  seized,  when  the  mind  is  pre- 
pared by  previous  conversation,  and  the  feelings  seem  to 
demand  the  act  of  prayer,  —  for  the  turning  to  God  for  wis- 
dom and  aid.  But  prayer  is  the  last  thing  to  be  obtruded, 
or  forced  upon  people.     It  should  be  a  free  act. 

Admonition  should  never  be  administered,  if  it  is  required 
at  all,  in  the  presence  of  others;  neither  should  parents  be 
talked  to  in  reference  to  their  moral  and  spiritual  duties  in 
a  reproving  vein,  before  their  children. 

A  minister,  of  course,  has  a  right  to  have  his  intimate 
friends,  just  as  any  other  man  has,  and  to  visit  some  fami- 
lies more  than  others  ;  but  let  all,  rich  and  poor,  cultivated 
and  ignorant,  feel  that  they  have  a  common  friend  in  their 
pastor.  He  must  expect  to  hear  complaints  in  regard  to 
his  neglect  of  pastoral  visitation ;  some  are  exacting  in  this 


552  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

respect ;  but  these  complaints  will  cease  when  it  is  known 
that  he  has  a  true  affection  for  his  people,  and  that  he 
means  to  impart  to  them  all,  Avithout  respect  of  persons, 
in  spiritual  things. 

When  there  is  an  especial  call  for  a  pastoral  visit,  let  it 
not  be  delayed  ;  let  everything  else  wait ;  a  moment  rightly 
nsed  here,  is  better  than  days  and  weeks  of  attention  after- 
ward. And  everything  stimulates  us  to  be  faithful  to  this 
duty.  President  Wayland  says,  "So  far  as  I  have  known 
the  events  that  have  led  to  conversion,  I  have  observed, 
specially  of  late,  that  a  much  larger  number  have  been  led 
to  reflection  by  private  conversation  than  by  any  public 
ministrations." 

In  conversing  with  very  illiterate,  and  perhaps  degraded 
people,  such  as  are  to  be  found  in  our  large  cities,  and 
almost  nowhere  else,  care  should  be  taken  not  to  talk  to 
them  in  their  own  modes  of  thought  and  language.  "  Clergy- 
men and  others  often,  too,  make  a  fearful  mistake  by  talk- 
ing to  the  poor  in  their  own  language.  Talk  to  them  kindly, 
talk  to  them  as  fellow-men  and  women,  talk  to  them  with 
real  sympathy,  and  you  meet  with  sympathy  and  respect, 
nay,  more,  with  real  affection  from  them ;  but  lower  your- 
self to  their  style  of  language,  and  they  feel  it  to  be  a  keen 
insult,  for  they  know  you  arc  stooping  to  them,  not  to  raise 
them  up  to  your  level,  but  to  bring  yourself  down  to 
theirs."  1 

In  the  treatment  of  the  debased  i)oor  and  outcast  of  our 
great  cities,  much  tact  is  required.  Actual  want  should  be 
at  once  relieved ;  but  it  is  not  perhaps  always  well,  on  every 
visit,  to  give  money,  for  then  it  will  be  always  expected,  and 
the  hope  of  it  may  produce  a  false  state  of  mind ;  but  the 
alms  should  be  given  at  other  times  and  in  other  ways.  The 
complaints  and  bitter  remarks  of  very  ignorant  and  poor 
people  are  to  be  kindly  borne,  even  their  occasional  hypoc- 

'  Parson  and  Parish. 


§  44.       PASTORAL   VISITING.  553 

risy  and  want  of  truth  ;  for  these  faults,  strange  as  it  sounds, 
may  sometimes  subsist  with  good  qualities.^ 

Not  only  the  young,  thoughtless,  impenitent,  ignorant, 
tempted,  vicious,  need  kind  personal  conversation,  admoni- 
tion, and  counsel,  but  Christians  also,  at  times,  need  the 
same.  The  world  entangles  them ;  cares,  anxieties,  busi- 
ness troubles,  ambitions;  artificial  pleasures,  the  gains  and 
glare  of  this  world,  dazzle  and  beguile  the  best  minds. 
The  pastor  should  go  around  like  Christ,  the  "  Good  Shep- 
herd," liberating  entangled  souls  from  the  snares  of  the 
world,  and  giving  them  comfort,  light,  and  aid.  A  strong 
word  of  hearty  faith,  of  simple  trust  in  the  right,  will  often 
give  the  relieving  blow  to  cut  a  meshed  soul  free.  The  sea- 
sonable visit  of  the  pastor  may  sometimes  be  blessed  to  the 
saving  of  a  soul  that  is  trembling  on  the  verge  of  some 
great  and  destroying  temptation. 

There  is  more  danger  from  indolence  in  regard  to  the  duty 
of  pastoral  visitation  than  there  is  from  over-zeal  and  over- 
work in  it.  These  timely  remarks  are  from  the  Dean 
of  Westminster's  Treatise  on  the  Epistles  to  the  Seven 
Churches  :  "  Perhaps  in  our  day  none  are  more  tempted  to 
measure  out  to  themselves  tasks  too  light  and  inadequate, 
than  those  to  whom  an  office  and  ministry  in  the  church  has 
been  committed.  Indeed,  there  is  here  to  them  an  ever- 
recurring  temptation,  and  this  from  the  fact  that  they  do, 
for  the  most  part,  measure  out  their  own  day's  task  them- 
selves. Others,  in  almost  every  other  calling,  have  it 
measured  out  to  them;  if  not  the  zeal,  earnestness,  sinceri- 
ty, which  they  are  to  put  into  the  performance  of  it,  yet  at 
any  rate  the  outward  limits,  the  amount  of  time  they  shall 
devote  to  it,  and  often  the  definite  quantity  of  it  which  they 
shall  accomplish.  It  is  not  so  with  us.  We  give  it  exactly 
the  number  of  hours  which  we  please.  We  are,  for  the 
most  part,  responsible  to  no  man  ;  and  when  laborers  thus 

'  Manse  of  Mastland. 

47 


554  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

apportion  their  own  burdens,  and  do  this  from  day  to  day, 
how  near  the  danger  that  they  should  unduly  spare  them- 
selves, and  make  the  burdens  far  lighter  than  they  should 
have  been ! " 

§  45.     Care  of  the  Sick  and  the  Affiicied. 

In  our  Puritan  conception  of  the  ministry,  we  apparently 
lose  some  of  the  advantages  of  the  priestly  idea  of  the 
ministry,  which  his  immense  official  authority  clothes  him 
with. 

The  priest  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  or  even,  in 
some  instances,  the  clergyman  of  the  English  Established 
Church,  calls  upon  the  sick  as  an  official  duty,  and  the  sick 
person  makes  confession  to  him  as  one  who  has  spiritual 
authority,  or  is  a  kind  of  mediator  between  man  and  God. 
That  may,  in  some  instances,  possibly  compel  a  more  candid 
confession  of  the  state  of  his  heart  than  we  can  draw  forth 
as  simple  ministers  of  the  gospel.  If  one  stands  as  it  were 
in  the  place  of  God,  being  able  to  absolve  the  soul  from  sin, 
or  as  one,  who,  in  the  name  of  the  church,  holds  the  keys 
of  the  eternal  world,  he  may  produce  such  fear  in  the  mind 
of  the  sick  person  that  the  truth,  however  painful,  shall  be 
forced  from  him. 

The  minister  of  one  of  our  ow^n  churches  visits  the  sick 
rather  in  the  relation  of  a  spiritual  friend ;  and  the  sick 
person  may  or  may  not  feel  compelled  to  reveal  his  heart, 
his  true  spiritual  condition,  to  a  human  being ;  and  even  if 
the  sick  man  is  a  true  Christian,  there  may  be  in  his  mind 
a  feeling  that  his  dealings  at  such  a  time  are  Avith  God, 
rather  than  with  man.  But  this  want  of  official  authority 
may  be  made  up,  and  more  than  made  up,  by  the  minister's 
own  wisdom,  faithfulness,  and  love  of  the  soul  of  the  sick, 
winning' his  free  and  willing  confidence,  and  leading  him  to 
seek  spiritual  aid  and  counsel ;  so  that  it  is  only  an  ap- 
parent and  not  real  superiority,  which  the  Roman  Catholic 


§  45.       CARE  'OF   THE    SICK   AND   THE   AFFLICTED.         555 

priest  possesses  over  the  humblest  minister  of  true  piety  and 
fidelity. 

As  we  have  before  hinted,  it  is  never  well  to  put  off  a 
visit  upon  a  sick  person,  or  to  delay  it  so  long  that  it  shall 
look  as  if  one  came  because  there  were  some  immediate 
danger  of  death ;  thus  giving  the  impression  that  the  visit 
is  a  compulsory  one.  When  a  pastor  learns  that  one  of 
his  people  is  very  ill,  he  should  at  once  go  to  see  him  with- 
out waiting  to  be  sent  for;  but  he  should,  nevertheless, 
endeavor  to  time  his  call  so  opportunely  and  naturally  that 
the  suspicion  of  its  being  an  extraordinary  call  shall  not  be 
awakened,  and  thus,  in  some  instances,  excite  and  alarm  the 
sufferer,  or  in  others  close  the  mind  to  all  spiritual  benefit. 

In  the  case  of  the  extremely  weak  and  the  dying,  some- 
times all  that  one  can  do  is  to  ask,  solemnly  and  affection- 
ately, some  very  brief  question  in  regard  to  the  state  of  the 
soul,  and  the  hope  it  experiences,  or  to  speak  some  animat- 
ing text  of  Scripture.  In  visiting  the  sick,  it  is  often  well 
for  the  pastor  to  read  from  the  Bible  an  appropriate  inspiring 
passage ;  for  the  Bible  never  sounds  so  sweet  or  divine  as 
in  a  sick  room ;  never  do  the  Psalms,  the  conversations  of 
Jesus  in  John's  Gospel,  and  the  descriptions  of  the  blessed 
state  in  the  book  of  Revelation,  seem  to  be  so  truly  the 
words  of  God  out  of  heaven,  as  in  the  chamber  of  sickness 
and  of  approaching  death.  Then  nothing  but  the  words 
of  God  serve. 

What  one  says  at  such  a  time  should,  of  course,  be  pun- 
gent and  full  of  Christ.  It  should  be  truly  preaching  the 
gospel,  its  hopes  and  fears,  its  promises  and  duties,  the 
need  of  regeneration,  and  the  forgiveness  of  sins  through 
faith  in  Christ,  the  personal  obligation  of  the  soul  to  God, 
God's  eternal  judgment  of  the  soul  —  great  vital  truths, 
uttered  in  a  few  simple  phrases,  without  refining  upon  them ; 
the  objective  rather  than  subjective  view  of  them;  in  a 
word,  Christ,  the  great  object  of  the  sick  and  sinful  soul 
to  rest  upon,  lifted  up  clearly  to  view. 


556  PASTORAL,  orriCE. 

Even  the  believer,  in  his  hour  of  sickness  and  feebleness, 
needs  cncourjigement ;  and  the  pastor  should  not  go  into 
the  sick  chamber  as  into  a  hospital,  with  a  lugubrious  coun- 
tenance. He  should  go  there  to  carry  comfort  and  life, 
without  manifesting  lightness  and  want  of  appreciation  of 
the  circumstances  of  suffering,  and  perhaps  of  the  near  ap- 
proach to  death.  But  there  should  be  good  cheer  in  the 
sick  room ;  and  duty  might  sometimes  lead  the  pastor  to 
draw  away  the  mind  for  a  little  time  from  dwelling  morbidly 
on  religious  themes.  In  some  diseases  especially,  there  are 
alternations  of  feeling ;  at  times  the  sick  think  that  they 
should  be  dwelling  upon  God  every  moment,  and  are  not 
contented  unless  they  are  doing  so  ;  but  is  even  the  healthy 
Christian  mind  always,  every  instant,  so  intensely  taken  up 
with  these  themes  ?  Must  it  not  sometimes  turn  to  com- 
mon subjects? 

It  may  be  also  that  even  a  Christian  mind  is  constitu- 
tionally inclined  to  look  upon  the  dark  side  of  things ;  and 
this  tendency  will  probably  be  increased  as  the  bodily 
strength  diminishes,  and  as  the  will  is  less  able  to  resist 
this  despondent  feeling.  A  person  may  thus,  though  a 
good  man,  fall  almost  into  hopeless  despair  concerning  his 
spiritual  state,  and  he  may  fear  to  die.  The  pastor  then 
should  recall  to  him  the  proofs  of  a  Christian  character  that 
can  manifest  themselves  in  his  life,  and,  with  a  kind  of  holy 
boldness,  should  offer  a  lively  defence  of  himself  against 
himself,  not  to  produce  self-confidence,  but  to  awaken  in 
him  hope  that  God  will  not  leave  him  in  the  hour  of  need ; 
that  Christ,  in  whom  he  has  trusted,  will  not  now  forsake 
him.  In  almost  every  such  case,  God  vouchsafes  light  to 
the  soul  before  death ;  but  still  there  are  instances  where 
the  best  Christians  die  under  a  cloud. 

A  pastor  may  also  encourage  a  good  man  who  is  in  this 
dark  state,  by  saying  to  him,  that  perhaps  God  may  permit 
this  darkness  iu  his  case,  in  order  to  instruct  and  encourage 
other  Christians.     They  will  say,  there  is  our  brother,  whose 


§   45.       CARE    OF   THE    SICK   AND    THE    AFFLICTED.         557 

whole  life  has  spoken  for  the  faith ;  we  have  seen  his  self- 
sacrificing  spirit ;  we  know  the  love  there  is  in  him ;  and 
yet  he  is  permitted  to  lie  in  his  last  hours  under  a  deep 
shadow  of  doubt  and  fear.  Let  us,  then,  hope  for  our- 
selves, although  the  light  given  us  is  often  faint  and  feeble. 
Let  us  not  trust  to  outward  manifestations  and  feelings, 
but  to  deeper  principles  of  faith,  and  of  the  life  of  God 
within  the  soul. 

Those,  however,  are  j^eculiar  cases,  and,  as  a  general 
rule,  it  is  always  safe  to  point  the  soul  to  Christ  for  trust 
and  hope ;  to  endeavor  to  produce  true  humility,  and  to 
take  away  the  grounds  of  self-confidence. 

Some  Christians,  as  well  as  other  men,  have  strong  fears 
of  physical  death ;  and  it  is  in  that  case  needful  for  the 
pastor  to  stimulate  the  mind,  "to  raise  the  spirit  above  the 
dust,"  to  fix  it  upon  the  invisible  and  eternal, — upon  that 
*' everlasting  life,"  which  a  true  hope  in  Christ  gives. 

The  sick  room  and  dying  bed  of  the  Christian  is  the 
antechamber  of  heaven;  where  the  pastor  may  learn  more, 
and  see  deeper  into  heavenly  things,  than  anywhere  else  on 
earth.  How  great  a  privilege  to  be  permitted  to  stand  by 
and  see  the  glory  of  God  !  One  feels  that  instead  of  com- 
ing to  aid  others,  he  is  there  himself  to  learn. 

The  most  trying  part  of  the  pastoral  work  is  the  prepar- 
ing of  the  impenitent  mind  for  death.  How  much  of  truth, 
firmness,  faithfulness,  faith,  patience,  and  love  are  here  re- 
quired !  This  is,  indeed,  the  touchstone  of  the  pastor's  faith 
and  character.  There  is  a  deep-wrought  feeling  in  the 
church  that  death-bed  repentances  are  for  the  most  part  un- 
true ;  and  this  is  a  healthful  sentiment  in  one  sense  ;  for  the 
life  manifests  the  child  of  God ;  but  we  may  carry  this  feel- 
ing too  far,  and  forget  the  infinite  mercy  of  God,  and  also 
his  infinite  power,  which  is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  all 
who  come  unto  him.  We  should  never  give  up  the  truth 
of  the  possibility  of  the  salvation  of  any  soul  so  long  as  life 
lasts ;  even  as  the  saving  look  of  the  Eedeemer  fell  upon  the 
47* 


558  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

expiring  thief  at  his  side.  The  patience  of  love,  and  the 
hope  of  foith,  then,  for  the  sinner,  should  be  literally  nn- 
limited.  Yet  the  treatment  of  a  sick  or  dying  man,  whose 
heart  is  hardened  in  impenitence,  or  who  is  a  decided  op- 
poser  of  the  truth,  is  a  difficult  matter.  To  argue  upon 
doctrinal  points  with  him  is  usually  futile.  Controversy 
produces  irritability  and  passion  in  the  sick  rather  than  con- 
viction. One  may  strive  in  direct  or  indirect  ways  to  dis- 
cover what  is  the  false  ground  of  confidence  to  which  they 
who  die  impenitent  cling,  and  this  should  be  taken  away, 
and  the  truth  clearly,  firmly,  kindly  presented. 

The  insensible  soul  should  be  awakened,  and  made  to 
realize  eternity.  But  often,  where  it  can  be,  prayer  is  the 
only  and  the  last  resort  in  the  sick  room ;  and  in  prayer  one 
can  pour  out  all  his  heart,  his  fears,  thoughts,  and  desires 
concerning  the  sick ;  and  it  is  right  to  do  so,  for  God  would 
surely  desire  to  bless,  and  would  the  more  willingly  bless  so 
earnest  a  prayer.  And  if  anything  will  awaken  fervent 
prayer,  it  is  to  see  a  soul  trembling  on  the  edge  of  eternity, 
and  unprepared  for  the  change.  Then  a  minister  feels  his 
responsibility  to  be  too  great  for  him  to  bear ;  he  must  go 
to  God,  and  lay  the  burden  upon  him.  An  English  clergy- 
man bears  testimony  to  the  fact  that  sick  and  dying  persons 
are  often  more  conscious  of  what  is  going  on  about  them 
than  we  are  aAvare  of.  He  gives  two  or  three  actual  in- 
stances of  apparently  unconscious  and  dying  persons  hear- 
ing perfectly  the  prayers  repeated  by  their  bedsides,  and 
profiting  by  them  to  the  good  of  their  souls,  as  they  have 
testified  on  partial  recovery;  and  the  writer  adds,  "Acting 
upon  this  conviction,  I  never  lose  an  opportunity  of  praying 
by  the  bedside  of  the  sick,  even  when  the  patient  is  him- 
self unconscious ;  and  not  only  in  my  form  of  expression 
do  I  pray  for,  but  pray  with  the  sufierer."  ^ 

The  pastor  sometimes  finds  a  peculiar  trial  with  a  class 

*  Parson  and  People,  p.  198. 


§  45.       CARE    OF    THE    SICK    AND    THE    AFFLICTED.        559 

of  persons  of  a  negative  type  of  character,  who,  Avhen 
brought  to  lie  upon  a  feeble  and  dying  bed,  are  transfixed 
with  fears,  and  are  willing  to  give  implicit  assent  to  every- 
thing that  is  said  to  them.  This  is  the  case  often  with  those 
whose  lives  have  been  amiable,  but  who  have  exhibited  no 
decided  change  of  heart,  or  no  positive  religious  character. 
They  listen  with  eagerness,  and  they  apparently  assent  to 
the  truth ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  know  whether  it  is  a  true 
or  false  sorrow.  One  has,  in  such  cases,  to  exercise  min- 
gled firmness  and  gentleness.  The  heart  should  be  proved  y 
it  may  be  even  needful  to  arouse  by  words  of  searching 
truth.  One  should  endeavor  to  draw  forth  some  sincere 
statement  of  the  true  state  of  the  heart,  however  incohe- 
rent and  crude  it  be.  It  may  be  discovered  that  the  heart, 
though  troubled,  really  rests  on  some  error,  some  false 
security.  How  difficult  it  often  is  to  drive  the  soul  from 
this  refuge  of  lies,  to  lay  hold  upon  the  true  hope  in  Christ ! 

For  weeks  and  weeks  a  faithful  pastor  may  perceive  no 
change,  no  sign  of  movement  toward  a  higher  foundation. 
There  is,  perhaps,  even  the  same  feeble  hope  expressed  in 
the  goodness  of  one's 'intentions,  in  the  general  outward 
morality  of  one's  life,  or  in  the  indiscriminate  and  unintelli-' 
gent  mercy  of  God.  The  soul,  too,  has  incredible  powers 
of  resistance,  even  in  the  weakest  natures,  and  to  the  last 
moment  of  life  it  may  not  yield  its  will  to  the  will  of  God. 
The  power  of  human  pride  partakes  of  the  soul's  immortal 
nature.  The  pastor  should  be  aware  of  the  fact,  that  in  the 
very  process  of  disease  itself,  a  placid  state  of  feeling  is 
sometimes  produced  in  the  mind,  a  dreamy  tranquillity, 
which  has  no  thought  of  the  future,  and  is  willing  to  let 
body  and  soul  go  without  further  care.  It  becomes  one's 
duty  to  discriminate  between  the  effect  of  such  a  dissolu- 
tion of  the  powers  of  nature  and  the  real  tranquillity  that 
true  faith  brins^s. 

The  effect  even  of  anodynes  upon  the  mind  is  sometimes 
great,  and  may  produce  happy  feelings,  and  delightful  views 


5 GO  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

of  heaven,  of  which,  if  the  sick  person  perchance  recovers, 
he  may  retain  no  recollection. 

Let  one  endeavor  to  turn  the  mind  of  the  sick  and 
dying  away  from  earthly  and  human  supports,  to  rest  upon 
Christ.  Speak  iuspiringly ;  hold  the  Saviour  up  to  view ; 
be  an  ambassador  of  mercy  and  hope ;  let  words  of  divine 
grace  fall  from  your  lips  —  the  words  of  life. 

And  the  pastor  should  not  neglect  the  convalescent,  but 
should  continue  to  visit  them*  faithfully  during  all  the 
period  of  their  recovery ;  for  in  this  he  shows  true  friend- 
ship, and  not  the  mere  pressure  of  professional  obliga- 
tion. 

One  should  make  a  definite  preparation  for  the  visitation 
of  the  sick ;  he  should  mark  the  passages  of  Scripture  to 
be  read,  and  think  over  the  remarks  he  will  make,  so  that 
they  may  be  plain  and  condensed,  easy  to  be  understood, 
and  yet  full  of  solid  truth.  They  should  be  put  in  such  a 
shape  that  the  feeble  mind  may  readily  retain  them  and 
reflect  upon  them  ;  that  they  may,  so  to  speak,  hold  them 
in  their  weak  hands.  In  concluding  this  theme,  we  would 
quote  the  practical  counsel  of  Jeremy  Taylor,  which  should 
be  impressed  on  the  minds  of  a  Christian  people :  "  Let 
the  minister  of  religion  be  sent  to,  not  only  against  the 
agony,  or  death,  but  be  advised  with  in  the  whole  course 
of  the  sickness  ; "  for  while  the  mind  is  still  clear,  and  ca- 
pable of  thought  and  voluntary  action,  then  the  preaching 
of  the  Word  may  be  signally  blest,  when  sickness  closes 
the  door  to  the  world,  and  shuts  up  the  soul  to  God  and 
eternal  things. 

We  would  now  say  a  word  concerning  the  visitation  of 
the  afflicted^  who  are  suffering  by  reason  of  the  loss  of 
friends,  or  any  other  trouble.  Sorrow  has  been  called  the 
angel  of  God's  love,  and  times  of  aflSiction  are  spiritual 
harvest  times.  In  these  seasons  the  pastor  may  make  swift 
strides  into  the  afiections  of  his  people  ;  and  the  truth,  too, 
has  then  a  subduing  power  that  it  rarely  has  at  other  times, 


§    45.       CAKE    OF    THE    SICK   AND   THE    AFFLICTED.        561 

although  those  times  of  affliction  also  draw  upon  a  minister's 
own  strength,  and  sometimes  they  seem  to  sap  his  very  life. 
There  is,  however,  a  simple  secret  which  a  pastor  learns, 
though  not  perhaps  until  after  a  considerable  experience, 
i.  e.,  that  he  is  not  called  upon  to  furnish  all  the  feeling, 
but  rather  to  guide  and  regulate  it ;  that  he  need  not  exhaust 
himself  to  provide  artificial  emotions,  but  that  a  few  words 
of  Christian  sympathy,  such  as  a  true  pastor  w^ill  have  at 
his  command,  are  sufficient  to-  touch  the  overcharged  spring 
in  the  heart  of  the  afflicted,  and  it  will  find  relief  in  its  own 
expression  and  flow. 

Affliction  is  the  time  when  God  opens  the  heart,  when 
he  ploughs  the  heart's  depths ;  and  then  the  precious  seed 
may  be  sowed  therein  :  but  still  it  is  important  to  bear  in 
mind  that  affliction  is  not  the  cause  of  good  to  a  soul,  al- 
though affliction  may  be  made,  by  God's  grace,  the  occasion 
of  inestimable  good ;  for  affliction,  without  the  higher  in- 
fluences of  the  truth  and  the  Spirit,  usually  injures  more 
than  it  benefits  a  man.  "  The  peaceable  fruits  of  righteous- 
ness "  are  afterwards  yielded  to  those  "  who  are  exercised 
thereby, ^^  who  are  rightly  influenced  by  them.  The  Scrip- 
tures speak  of  two  kinds  of  sorrow,  very  different  in  their 
nature,  which,  in  truth,  lie  infinitely  apart,  —  the  sorrow  felt 
by  a  worldly  mind  at  the  loss  of  the  things  it  holds  dear,  and 
the  godly  sorrow  which  leads  to  a  repentance  that  needs  not 
to  be  repented  of;  and  of  this  last  are  those  of  whom  the 
Lord  said,  '^ Blessed  are  they  that  mourn:  for  they  shall  be 
comforted. ^^ 

A  pastor  should  therefore  keep  the  great  truth  in  mind, 
that  he  can  expect  no  spiritual  good  to  spring  from  the 
afflictions  of  his  people  unless  they  are  received  in  faith, 
unless  the  truth  is  mingled  with  them.  "Every  sacrifice 
shall  be  scdted  icith  salt.''  The  soul,  while  in  an  agitated 
state,  and  taken  up  wholly  and  selfishly  with  its  sorrow, 
cannot  receive  the  pure  word  of  truth ;  it  must  be  brought 
to  calm  reflection  and  right  thoughts  of  God.     The  pastor, 


562  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

therefore,  has  a  double  duty  in  visiting  the  afflicted,  first,  to 
manifest  true  Christian  sympathy  with  the  sorrowing,  to 
"iveej)  icith  them  that  weep"  and,  secondly,  to  lead  their 
souls  to  a  higher  Christian  consolation. 

When  a  pastor  visits  a  family  in  great  affliction,  he  some- 
times enters  into  a  scene  of  moral  chaos.  It  may  be,  for 
the  most  part,  a  household  of  unchristianizcd  and  undis- 
ciplined hearts,  that  are  thrown  into  violent  commotion  and 
unwonted  conditions ;  the  grief  is  passionate,  unreflective, 
and  unsubmissive ;  the  whole  current  of  feeling  is  turned 
upon  the  memory  of  the  deceased  friend ;  he  is  exalted  into 
something  almost  superhuman ;  nothing  can  be  spoken  but 
of  his  unparalleled  worth  and  goodness ;  he  is  assigned  a 
high  place  among  the  blest ;  and  there  can  l)e  no  thought  or 
conversation  but  of  him.  Now,  to  bring  such  passionate 
and  excited  minds  to  look  to  God  rather  than  to  man,  and 
to  view  the  religious  obligations  of  the  chastisement,  is  a 
difficult  and  delicate  task,  for  natural  instincts  and  family 
affections,  good  but  undisciplined,  obscure  the  truth. 

But  the  minister,  kind  and  sympathizing  though  he  be, 
forbearing  though  he  may  be  to  human  sorrow,  and  even 
to  human  infirmities,  should  not  forget  that  he  is  the  am- 
bassador of  God,  and  he  should  lead  the  sorrowing  firmly 
away  from  false  sources  of  comfort  to  the  true  and  Eternal 
Source. 

The  pastor  should  also  strive  to  prevent  the  afflicted  from 
nursing  their  grief,  from  ofi*ering  sacrifice  to  it,  from  in- 
dulgiug  in  what  is  called  "the  luxury  of  woe,"  which 
only  unnerves  the  mind  from  doing  its  duty.  He  should 
show  the  real  impiety  of  this  course,  and  should  teach 
those  affections  that  have  been  prostrated  in  the  dust  to 
begin  to  reach  upward  to  Christ,  and  to  twine  upon  him, 
the  Almighty  Friend  and  Sustainer.  He  should  teach  the 
afflicted  to  endure  their  sorrows  with  patience  and  calm 
fortitude ;  he  should  set  forth  the  Christ-like  glory  of  the 
passive  virtues ;  he  should  show  that  the  Christian  life  lies 


§    45.       CARE    OF    THE    SICK   AND    THE    AFFLICTED.      563 

through  sufferings  ;  he  should  point  the  sorrowful  to  "  the 
Man  of  sorrows  "  and  should  show  them  that  "the  highw^ay 
of  the  cross,  which  the  King  of  sufferings  hath  trodden  be- 
fore us,  is  the  way  to  ease,  to  a  kingdom,  and  to  felicity."^ 

It  is  both  wise  and  Christian  to  attend  to  the  temporal 
wants  of  those  who  are  in  affliction  —  to  do  all  possible  acts 
of  kindness;  and  where  there  is  real  want,  to  carry  food, 
raiment,  money,  in  one's  hands ;  thus  showing  that  the 
interest  is  not  a  merely  official  one. 

Frequent  visits,  and  marked  kindness  on  the  part  of  the 
pastor  in  times  of  affliction,  bind  the  hearts  of  a  family  to 
their  pastor  by  the  strongest  bonds  of  gratitude.  Words, 
thoughts,  and  acts,  which,  perhaps,  are  not  hard  for  him, 
which  are  little  things  to  do,  yet  seem  great  to  sorrowing 
hearts,  and  strike  deep  in  them,  and  take  lasting  root. 
The  strongest  prejudices  and  aversions  are  then  overcome, 
and  even  the  stubborn  will  of  hardened  impenitence  often 
gives  w^ay  before  this  power  of  Christian  kindness  and  love. 

As  to  the  thoughts  and  topics  that  a  minister  should  in- 
troduce in  visiting  families  and  persons  in  affliction,  those 
are,  of  coiu'se,  modified  by  the  circumstances  of  the  case ; 
but  still  there  are  certain  topics  always  right  and  essential 
at  such  seasons.  It  is  always  right  to  speak  of  the  sover- 
eignty and  love  of  God  in  affiiction;  and  the  truth  may  be 
dwelt  upon  that  it  is  God  who  afflicts,  and  yet  not  willingly, 
but  for  the  real  good  of  the  sufferer.  The  reasons  of  the 
affliction  are  in  goodness  —  for  the  penitential  humbling  of 
the  selfish  soul  —  for  the  trial  of  faith  —  for  the  growth  of 
holiness  —  for  moral  education  and  refining  —  for  the  weak- 
ening of  sin  —  for  the  loosening  of  the  world's  grasp  on  the 
spirit.  And  even  in  cases  where  there  seems  to  be  no  ray 
of  hope,  where  the  hand  of  God  does  not  appear  to  be  at  all 
in  the  sorrow,  where  death  is  caused  by  human  folly,  or  vice, 
or  crime,  the  relation  of  God's  ordering  will  to   such  an 

'  Jeremy  Taylor's  Holy  Dying.     Works,  vol.  i.  p.  547. 


564  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

event,  and  to  all  events,  whether  good  or  bad,  should  be 
shown,  and  that  the  good  of  all  is  trul}^  subserved;  that 
the  jDarticular  loss  is  swallowed  up  in  the  general  gain  ;  and 
so  far  as  the  evil-doer  himself  is  concerned,  that  he  is  to  be 
left  in  the  hands  of  his  Creator,  his  best  Friend,  who  knows 
his  whole  history,  who  Avill  judge  him  righteously. 

There  is,  at  all  events,  a  recompense  to  the  rigliteona^  to  the 
believing  and  submissive  soul,  somewhere  in  the  universe, 
if  not  here,  yet  hereafter  ;  and  all  such  shall  see  it,  and  bless 
God,  for  "  many  are  the  affiictions  of  the  righteous,  but  the 
Lord  delivereth  him  out  of  them  all;  "  and  "  all  things  shall 
umrk  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God.'" 

Lead  the  afflicted  soul  to  God,  and  leave  it  there,  to  the 
deep  and  healing  consolations  which  can  alone  flow  from 
the  comforting:  hand  of  the  Father.  The  name  of  Jesus  to 
the  sufferer  is  like  balm,  or  like  ointment,  poured  out  in  the 
house  of  affliction,  that  gives  refreshment,  strength,  and 
new  life  to  the  weak  soul  ready  to  perish. 

Exhortations,  also,  to  sincere  contrition  and  repentance 
of  sins;  to  pray  erf ulness,  and  to  the  performance  of  all 
religious  duties,  are  right  and  essential  to  any  idea  of 
pastoral  faithfulness  at  such  a  time.  "  Is  any  afflicted, 
let  him  pray :  "  affliction  is  the  time  for  the  taking  up  of 
spiritual  exercises,  for  the  beginning,  or  the  reconsecration 
of  a  religious  life*. 

In  true  repentance,  in  a  pure  turning  to  God,  the  Holy 
Spirit,  who  is  the  real  and  only  Comforter,  can  alone  be 
found ;  and  the  pastor  should  labor  to  make  manifest  to 
those  in  affliction  that  the  foundation  of  peace  is  in  God 
alone,  in  everlasting  reconciliation  with  him ;  that  it  should 
be  laid  within,  not  in  things  without.  "  To  him  that  is 
afflicted  pity  should  be  shoivn."  All  manifestations  of  real 
kindness,  all  expressions  of  simple,  genuine  symi:)athy,  are 
deeply  appreciated  at  such  a  time ;  and  every  alleviating 
circumstance  or  fact  of  the  affliction  itself,  from  which  com- 
fort can  be  drawn,  every  mingling  of  mercy  in  the  cup  of 


§  46.       TREATMENT    OF   DIFFERENT    CLASSES.  565 

sorrow,  may  be  noticed  and  made  use  of;  only  let  the 
pastor  not  suffer  the  afflicted  to  rest  in  those  things,  but  let 
him  lead  the  soul  to  spiritual  and  divine  consolations  ;  and, 
lastly,  that  joy  which  the  Christian,  and  the  Christian 
pastor,  has  in  his  heart,  should  be  freely  expressed ;  for 
Christian  pastors  are  "the  helpers  of  the  joy  of  their 
people "  in  times  of  trouble  and  darkness.  They  have  a 
joy  which  they  share  with  Christ,  and  which  the  world 
cannot  touch  ;  which  is  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  which 
overcomes  sorrow,  death,  and  the  changes  of  time,  and 
Avhich  is  able  to  impart  joy  and  comfort  to  those  who 
are  in  affliction. 

§  46.     Tlte  Treatment  of  different  Classes. 

The  sources  of  opposition  to  divine  truth  are  so  varied, 
and  are  so  often  found  in  different  tempers  of  mind,  and  in 
subtle  moral  causes,  that  they  lie  more  exclusively  in  the 
domain  of  the  pastoral,  than  of  the  theological  responsi- 
bility of  the  minister.  There  is  something  radically  wrong, 
doubtless,  in  the  heart  of  every  opposer  of  divine  truth ; 
but  the  hostility  which  springs  from  a  corrupt  heart,  and 
which  is  a  part  of  the  life  of  a  wicked  mind  positively  an- 
tagonistic to  every  revelation  of  a  supernatural  will,  is  a 
thing  different  from  that  negative  disbelief  which  springs 
from  purely  intellectual  difficulties  in  minds  it  may  be  of 
acute  and  superior  powers.  This  admits,  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent, of  human  medication,  or,  at  least,  allows  of  the  opera- 
tion of  a  large  charity.  The  difficulties  of  such  minds  should 
be  kindly  recognized  and  patientlj'  reasoned  with,  for  they 
may  be  difficulties  that  can  be  removed. 

1.    TJie  unbelieving  and  im/penitent. 

The  theologian  meets  the  doubt  as  it  presents  itself  in  its 
objective  aspects ;  but  the  pastor  looks  behind  the  doubt, 
and  searches  carefully  into  its  deeper  subjective  causes  and 
48 


5G6  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

conditions.  His  aim  is  not  to  refute  errot,  not  to  conquer 
opposition,  but  to  save  the  erring  soul.  A  wise  and  Christ- 
like  treatment  of  doubt  sometimes  leads  to  the  firm  estab- 
lishment of  faith  ;  for  a  sincere  doubt  expresses,  on  the 
whole,  a  condition  of  mind  more  hopeful,  than  a  lifeless 
acquiescence  or  indifferentism ;  and  a  sceptic,  if  he  is  a 
truth-seeker,  may  be  in  one  stage  of  development  toward  a 
larger  and  higher  faith.  The  very  progress  of  the  human 
mind,  coming  in  apparent  collision  with  the  facts  of  Chris- 
tianity, produces  agitation  in  souls  not  as  yet  profoundly 
established  in  faith,  like  a  strong  wind  that  blows  against 
the  current,  and  raises  commotion  in  the  waters. 

The  unbelief  which  springs  from  the  progress  of  science, 
and  the  widening  of  the  intellectual  vision,  should  be  met 
with  the  same  broad  intelligence  as  that  which  originates  it. 
The  peculiar  form  of  denial  in  the  present  age,  having 
abandoned  the  region  of  the  supernatural,  rests  almost 
entirely  in  the  region  of  the  pure  intellect  and  in  the  posi- 
tive facts  and  conclusions  of  the  natural  reason,  and  it  must 
be  overcome  by  a  faith  that  fully  recognizes  and  admits  the 
difficulties  in  scientific  minds ;  that  no  longer  narrowly  con- 
tends against  the  advance  of  knowledge  ;  that  is^  itself  phi- 
losophical, in  harmony  with  the  progress  of  true  science,  and 
that  is  more  earnest,  more  self-sacrificing,  more  efficient  in 
good  to  humanity  than  is  scientific  doubt.  Let  there  be  no 
longer  this  jealous  and  unreasonable  antagonism  between 
theology  and  science  ;  where  they  move  in  the  same  planes 
they  must  necessarily  harmonize,  and  where  they  move  in 
diiferent  planes  they  need  not  come  into  collision ;  for 
they  are  no  more  essentially  opposed  to  each  other  than 
sky  and  earth  —  than  those  mysterious  celestial  orbs, 
which  roll  in  space  and  light  the  darkness,  are  opposed  to 
the  movement  and  welfare  of  our  own  better  known  terres- 
trial system. 

But  the  Christian  pastor,  while  culpable  if  he  is  not  an 
intelligent  and  studious  man,  and  if  he  does  not  strive,  as 


§  46.      TREAT]\IENT   OF   DIFFEKENT   CLASSES.  567 

far  as  his  meaus  allow  bira,  to  keep  himself,  in  some  sense, 
abreast  of  the  scientific  progress  of  the  age,  should,  at  the 
same  time,  earnestly  keep  himself  in  the  supernatural  sphere 
of  faith,  and  not  come  down  entirely  to  the  level  of  human 
science,  seeing  that,  by  doing  so,  he  yields  too  much ;  he 
loses  his  hold  of  the  true  overcoming  power,  —  the  power 
that  is  stronger  than  knowledge.  By  maintaining  his  hold 
of  the  supernatural,  he  maintains  his  superiority  to  scepti- 
cism, which,  though  it  claims  to  be  theistic,  and  even  Chris- 
tian, is  often,  in  its  essence,  thoroughly  pantheistic  and 
material,  denying  spirit,  denying  the  spirituality  and  per- 
sonality of  God. 

The  pastor,  as  a  practical  matter,  will  find  a  class  of  per- 
sons in  his  congregation  who  may  be  called  "  natural  unbe- 
lievers ;  "  who  will  always  see  the  objections  to  a  truth  before 
they  see  the  reasons  for  it ;  who  are  morbidly  cautious  in 
arriving  at  a  conclusion ;  who  are  ever  striving,  but  never 
able,  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth ;  who  are  men 
of  little  imagination  and  power  of  vivid  feeling,  though  by 
HO  means  lacking  in  kind  feeling  or  uprightness  of  charac- 
ter. They  may  be  good  fiithers,  brothers,  sons.  Such 
persons  are  not  always  to  be  reached  by  direct  assaults ; 
they  are  cool  fencers,  and  are  not  to  be  overcome  by 
ofi"-hand  argument.  They  receive  nothing  upon  authority, 
but  must  come  to  the  truth,  if  at  all,  through  their  own 
mental  convictions.  This  is  a  tyjje  of  mind  not  uncommon 
in  New  England,  and  should  be  wisely  and  thoughtfully  treat- 
ed. Often  pure  reasoning,  the  wrestling  of  mind  with  mind, 
the  meeting  of  argument  with  argument,  the  vigorous 
■wielding  of  logic  and  learning,  giving  blow  for  blow,  is  the 
best  method  of  procedure  with  such  minds.  There  is  a 
vast  deal  of  infidelity  which  cannot  stand  an  instant  before 
bold  and  skilful  argument.  But,  in  most  cases,  having  ob- 
tained the  good  will  and  personal  respect  of  such  a  man, 
having  fallen  into  terms  of  easy  fellowshij)  with  him,  the 
pastor  should  strive  to  find  out  the  true  source  of  his  dis- 


568  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

belief,  if  it  is  in  some  sense  constitutional,  or  the  result  of 
ignorance,  or  the  fruit  of  wilful  opposition  and  depravity. 
It  will  be  generally  discovered  that  there  is  much  absolute 
ignorance  of  religious  things,  and  of  the  Scriptures  even, 
in  the  most  intellectual  unbeliever,  and  that  the  habit 
of  doubting  has  kept  the  light  from  his  mind,  and  his 
mind  from  the  light.  It  is  always  well,  as  a  friend,  to  re- 
quest such  a  person  to  read  the  New  Testament  carefully 
through,  book  by  book,  leaving  him  entirely  to  himself 
and  to  the  influences  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  Often  the  in- 
tellectual conversion,  at  least,  of  such  a  mind,  if  not  his  real 
salvation,  will  be  the  result  of  this  simple  but  profound 
remedy. 

Unbelief,  however,  lies  more  commonly  in  the  moral  than 
intellectual  nature;  and  every  man,  if  he  will,  can  believe, 
else  there  would  be  no  responsibility  to  believe,  else  faith 
would  not  be  a  universal  obligation.  Therefore  the  unbe- 
liever should  be  led  to  see  that  faith  does  not  lie  altogether 
in  the  sphere  of  reason ;  that  it  is  a  more  inward  sense  and 
spiritual  perception  of  truth,  and  that  God  and  eternal 
things  cannot  be  entirely  comprehended  by  the  intellect,  so 
that  the  sjjiritual  nature  may  be  awakened,  and  the  need  of 
God  felt.  We  cannot  err  here.  Every  soul  needs  God 
for  its  knowledge,  true  life,  and  peace. 

One  sometimes,  however,  though  rarely,  meets  with  a 
mind  in  which  the  very  capacity  of  faith  seems  to  be 
wanting,  the  foundations  of  belief  to  be  gone.  This  is 
the  legitimate  and  terrible  consequence  of  a  man's  having 
deliberately  adopted  some  material  theory,  and  carrying 
it  out  to  its  boldest  logical  results.  Such  a  mind  comes  at 
lenofth  into  a  condition  which  we  conceive  to  be,  or  to  have 
become,  absolutely  diseased  ;  although  it  is  still  responsible 
for  having  brought  itself  into  this  deplorable  state ;  and 
such  a  mind  should  be  treated,  in  some  sense,  as  a  diseased 
mind;  for  faith  is  the  normal  and  sound  condition  of  the 
mind.     The  feeblest  germ  of  faith  in  such  a  mind,  of  belief 


§  46.       TREATMENT    OF   DIFFERENT   CLASSES.  569 

in  anything,  in  goodness,  in  man,  in  aflfection,  in  patriotism, 
in  ontwarcl  nature,  in  art,  in  business,  should  be  carefully 
nursed,  and  thus  it  may  be  gradually  drawn  or  impelled  to 
a  faith  in  higher  things.  Christ  is  the  light  that  lighteth 
every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world,  and  we,  ourselves, 
should  have  a  practical,  unswerving  faith  in  that  truth. 

But  that  class  of  intellectual  opposers  and  unbelievers  is 
small  in  comparison  with  that  great  common  class  of  impeni- 
tent unbelievers  to  which  these  and  many  more  belong,  who 
are  as  yet  in  an  unconverted  state,  who.  are  untouched  by 
the  power  of  divine  truth,  and  who  are,  apparently,  "ivitJi- 
out  Jwpe  and  ivitJiout  God  in  tlie  ivorld.^^  In  treating  such 
souls,  the  pastor,  whether  in  the  pulpit  or  out  of  it,  is  called 
upon  to  preach  the  truth  plainly ;  and,  as  one  of  the  most 
effectual  means  of  awakening  nnspiritual  minds  to  a  con- 
sciousness of  their  state,  he  should  present  the  claims  of  the 
divine  law  —  he  should  preach  to  the  conscience.  It  was 
the  apostolic  method  to  lay  open  to  sinful  men  the  purity, 
perfection,  and  spirituality  of  the  law,  written  not  only  in  the 
Word,  but  "ow  the  fleshly  tablets  of  the  heart"  and  the  na- 
ture of  the  law's  transgression,  which  is  sin ;  for  the  law 
comes,  in  the  order  of  time,  if  not  in  the  order  of  conscious 
experience,  before  the  gospel,  —  repentance  before  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  The  great  overwhelming  sense  of  the 
disapproval  of  God  should  be  aroused,  —  of  God  present 
with  the  soul,  looking  on  the  soul,  judging  the  soul,  show- 
ing it  in  the  clear  light  of  eternity,  its  perverse  contradic- 
tion of  the  ri«:hteous  law  in  its  own  nature,  forcinsf  it  to 
pronounce  self-condemnation.  A  true  sense  of  sin  is  to  be 
awakened ;  and  it  is  an  act  of  love  to  convince  the  sinner 
of  his  sin,  of  his  want  of  holy  love  toward  God,  and  of  his 
selfishness  toward  man  ;  and  then,  through  the  law,  he  may 
be  led  to  feel  the  need  of  Christ  as  a  divine  Redeemer.  The 
pastor  should  address  strong,  clear  Avords  to  the  moral 
sense  of  the  impenitent,  not  merely  sensational  and  terrify- 
ing words,  but  words  that  reach  the  conscience,  that  move 
48* 


570  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

the  innermost  mind,  and  that,  by  the  grace  of  God,  lead  a 
man  to  smite  upon  his  breast,  and  cry,  ^^  Unclean,  unclean; 
God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner!"  The  impenitent  should 
be  led  to  see  that  Omnipotence  cannot  save  a  man  who  wil- 
fully remains  in  his  sins";  but  that  while  he  thus  consciously 
continues  in  sin,  chooses  sin,  prefers  sin,  he  is  "  condemned 
alreadf/." 

The  soul  that  is  wholly  destitute  of  the  love  of  God, 
is  thereby,  in  the  nature  of  things,  prevented  from  coming 
to  God,  and  from  knowing  and  enjoying  him  ;  and  it  is, 
in  fact,  ''  dead  in  trespasses  and  in  sins."  But  the  truth 
that  such  a  soul  is  capable  of  recovery,  that  God  loves 
it,  and  would  have  every  man  repent  and  live,  should  lead 
the  pastor,  in  the  spirit  of  Christ,  to  seek  the  impenitent 
soul,  for  he  cannot  expect  that  the  impenitent  soul  will 
seek  him.  He  should  search  out  the  soul  in  its  deepest 
refuges,  delusions,  and  hiding-places.  The  true  pastor's 
faith  and  hope  in  regard  to  every  soul  are  invincible.  Some 
souls  must  be  plucked  "  as  brands  from  the  burning  "  —  as 
one,  at  personal  risk,  enters  a  burning  house  amid  fire  and 
smoke  to  save  life.     Love  is  bold. 

2.      The  inquio'er. 

We  are  prevented,  by  want  of  space,  from  discussing  the 
interesting  theme  of  Revivals,  which  are,  if  pure  and  spir- 
itual, not  only  scriptural,  but,  as  might  be  shown,  beauti- 
fully philosophical ;  and  we  must  content  ourselves  with 
briefly  describing  one  soul  who  is  moved  upon  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  making  it  to  stand  as  a  type  of  that  class, 
which,  seen  in  wide-spread  reformatory  movements  of  the 
Spirit  upon  men's  minds,  presents  features  often  in  the 
highest  degree  grand  and  impressive.  We  will,  however, 
remark  in  respect  to  revivals  in  America,  that,  from  the 
earliest  times,  a  more  simple  and  primitive  state  of  society 
in  this  country,  the  predominance  of  the  democratic  ele- 
ment, the  absence  of  caste  and  hierarchical  forms  of  church 


§   46.       TREATMENT   OF   DIFFERENT    CLASSES.  571 

government,  have  enabled  religious  feeling  to  flow  from  heart 
to  heart,  and  have  thus  been  favorable  to  revivals  of  religion. 
We  should  expect  revivals  to  take  place  in  America  more 
readily  than  in  the  Old  World.  Our  ancestors,  having 
come  to  these  shores  for  the  truth's  sake,  regarded  truth 
Avith  supreme  devotion.  It  was  the  chief  concern  with 
them  to  know  and  obey  the  truth.  The  Bible  was  their 
constant  study.  In  addition  to  that,  our  fathers  had  a  pecu- 
liar and  almost  apostolic  reliance  upon  the  power  of  prayer. 
They  believed  in  direct  answers  to  prayer.  Everything 
was  brought  to  God.  They  went  to  him  in  undoubted  faith, 
as  to  a  Ruler  and  Father,  for  all  questions  that  regarded 
the  state  and  the  family,  but  above  all  for  those  things  that 
pertain  to  the  advancement  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ. 
Those  principles  continue  to  be  strong  in  the  minds  of  their 
descendants,  and  therefore  we  should  expect  that  the  gospel 
in  this  free  land  would  have  its  primitive  revival  power. 
Old  ecclesiastical  forms  are  done  away,  the  stratifications 
of  society  are  broken  up,  rigid  theological  philosophies 
have  a  constantly  diminishing  force  ;  there  are  still,  however, 
a  stir  and  deep  activity  of  mind  on  religious  questions,  and 
the  heart  comes  freshly  in  contact  with  truth.  We  should 
expect,  therefore,  in  the  future,  a  development  of  revival 
power  from  the  gospel  even  greater  than  in  the  past,  as  this 
vital  contact  of  truth  with  the  human  heart  becomes  more 
unobstructed,  as  the  nature  and  love  of  God  in  the  gospel 
are  better  understood,  as  Christ  is  made  the  central  source 
of  spiritual  life,  and  as  the  truth  of  the  work  and  ministry 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  are  more  profoundly  believed  and  appre- 
ciated. Let  us  labor  for  revivals ;  and  yet  let  us  not  strive 
for  the  direct  end  of  revivals,  but  rather  for  saving  souls 
and  increasing  the  love  of  God  in  the  hearts  of  men,  and 
thus  labor  for  revivals  as  the  natural  harvests  of  good  hus- 
bandry. There  are  pastors  whose  ministries  may  be  called 
perpetual  revivals,  deep,  quiet,  simple,  in  which  souls  are 
continually  born  mto  the  kingdom  of  God,  without  special 


572  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

excitement  or  display  of  means.  This  natural  kind  of  revi- 
val, without  spasmodic  effort,  or  extraordinary  manifesta- 
tions, is  the  best ;  it  is  a  harmonious  cooperation  with  the 
Spirit  of  God,  bringing  new  life  into  a  church  and  peo- 
ple, and  producing  fruit  as  in  a  field,  in  its  own  order  and 
season. 

But  to  proceed  with  the  theme  in  hand.  It  may  be  laid 
down  as  a  starting  point,  that  under  the  Christian  system, 
Christ  is  the  source  of  all  true  spiritual  life;  that  ^' in  him 
we  have  redemption;  "that  in  him  dwell  the  springs  of  re- 
deeming power;  and  that  it  is  by  coming  to  him  through 
faith,  or  by  a  believing  union  with  him,  a  soul  obtains  for- 
giveness of  sins  and  eternal  life.  "  Through  him  ice  both 
have  access  hy  one  spirit  unto  the  Father."  ''He  that  hath 
the  Son  hath  life,  and  he  that  hath  not  the  Son  hath  not  life, 
but  the  tcrafh  of  God  abideth  on  him."  The  Son  reveals  to 
us  the  Father,  makes  the  invisible  visible,  and  the  inac- 
cessible accessible,  brings  God  near  to  us,  and  forms  the 
divine  "wa}',  and  truth,  and  life;"  so  that  by  union  with 
Christ  b}^  faith,  or  by  receiving  him  in  all  his  relations  to  us 
as  Redeemer,  Teacher,  and  Lord,  the  soul  joins  itself  to 
God,  and  finds  pardon  and  life.  ''Christ  also  hath  once 
suffered  for  sins,  the  just  for  the  unjust,  that  he  might  bring 
us  to  God."  Whether  this  mystery  of  the  grace  of  God  in 
Christ  is  explicable  or  not,  Christ  is  the  door  that  opens  to 
everything  in  the  spiritual  life,  to  all  its  hopes.  Christ  is 
set  before  us  as  the  open  way  by  which  a  sinful  man  may 
come  to  God,  and  receive  entire  justification,  and  begin  a 
truly  righteous  life. 

We  may  suppose,  then,  that  the  Holy  Spirit,  tbrough  the 
power  of  the  truth,  has  led  the  impenitent  soul  to  see  its 
sins  in  the  light  of  a  pure  and  spiritual  law  ;  to  feel  its 
need  of  higher  help ;  to  be  sincerely  inquiring  after  the 
way  of  life  ;  to  be  earnestly  seeking  the  salvation  of  God. 

Why  does  not  this  soul  at  once  find  Christ  the  present 
Eedeemer,  and  by  simple  faith  lay  hold  upon  this  new  life 


§  46.       TREATMENT    OF    DIFFERENT    CLASSES.  573 

promised  iii  the  gospel  ?  Why  does  it  not  obey  the  invita- 
tion ^^  come  unto  me"  ^or  by  coming  to  Christ  one  comes  to 
God,  who  alone  has,  and  can  give,  righteousness?  The  door 
is  open,  the  way  is  straight,  what  hinders  the  soul  from 
entering  in  and  finding  peace?  We  answer,  its  own  self- 
delusions,  hinderances,  and  difficulties, — in  a  word,  its 
real  unbelief. 

One  of  the  most  common  of  these  difficulties  in  the  mind 
of  the  inquirer  arises,  — 

(a.)  From  a  captious,  rather  than  true  thinJcing,  on  spir- 
itual things.  Through  a  questioning  and  argumentative 
rather  than  simple  state  of  mind,  one  who  is  truly  awakened 
may  rush,  by  a  kind  of  fatality,  upon  the  nietaphysical  dif- 
ficulties of  spiritual  truth.  It  might  be  laid  down  at  the 
beginning,  that  ihere  could  not  be  a  true  religion  which 
is  entirely  comprehensible,  or  without  the  possibility  of 
awakening  doubts.  No  true  religion  is  conceivable  which 
does  not  involve  a  conflict  with  the  finiteness  of  the  human 
intellect ;  and  in  dealing  with  God,  we  come  to  a  point 
where  we  must  plunge  into  the  abyss  of  the  unknown.  But 
instead  of  walking  in  the  path  of  a  reasonable  faith  clearly 
pointed  out  to  him,  the  inquirer  enters  into  questionings 
and  devious  paths.  He  gets  entangled  in  difficulties  respect- 
ing the  method  of  conversion,  —  in  the  divine  and  human 
agencies  that  are  concerned  in  it.  If  the  Holy  Spirit  is  the 
author  of  regeneration,  he  conceives  that  it  is  impossible  for 
him  to  obey  the  command  to  believe  and  go  to  Christ.  It  is 
true  that  God  alone  has  power  to  convert  a  soul ;  thaf  so 
deadened  is  the  will  by  sin,  that  the  creative  power  of  God 
must  infuse  new  life  into  our  spiritual  powers  :  but  God 
"  commandeth  all  men  everyichere  to  repent,''^  and  calls  on 
all  to  believe  in  him  whom  he  has  sent ;  and  though  we  can- 
not make  ourselves  independent  of  God  in  any  act,  in  the 
least  act,  so  in  the  greatest  act,  to  turn  from  the  service  of 
sin  to  the  service  of  God,  we  cannot  act  without  God ;  yet 
if  a  mind  will  simply  seek  to  obey  God,  God  will  cooperate 


574  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

with  his  endeavor,  and  give  him  all  needed  assistance.  .  Com- 
ing to  Christ  in  the  way  of  his  freedom,  he  will  have  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  help  him  to  come ;  but  consciously  and  deliberately 
refusing  to  obey  God,  he  will  not  attain  unto  him  ;  for  God 
will  surely  never  use  his  power  to  force  him  to  obey.  The 
Holy  Spirit  is  a  persuasive  influence,  and  works  in  the  way 
of  our  perfect  freedom,  even,  to  represent  it  feebly,  as  one 
mind  works  upon  another. 

Granted,  then,  the  weakness  of  our  sin-corrupted  nature 
to  throw  off  sin  and  come  to  God, — to  God  in  Christ, — 
yet  God  has  promised  to  be  with  every  sincere  inquirer  of 
the  way  of  life,  every  true  seeker,  every  one  who  will  hon- 
estlj^  receive  the  truth.  God  may  be  thus  said  to  be  air 
ways  striving  with  man's  spirit  to  lead  it  to  Christ.  Even 
as  the  Spirit  of  God  is,  in  one  sense,  diffused  throughout 
the  works  of  the  natural  creation  in  every  tree,  plant,  and 
organized  existence,  producing  and  sustaining  life,  so  his 
Spirit  is  everywhere  present,  working  in  his  spiritual  crea- 
tion, and  in  all  hearts.  We  should  not  doubt  the  presence 
of  the  divine  Spirit  in  any  man's  soul ;  and  the  fact  of  one's 
l.>eing  an  inquirer  after  divine  things,  is  proof  sufficient 
of  the  presence  of  the  inworking  Spirit  in  the  heart ;  and 
the  pastor  should  say  that  to  the  inquirer,  and  should  tell 
him  that  he  has  but  to  follow  those  higher  promptings  and 
they  will  surely  lead  him  to  Christ ;  for  this  is  the  result, 
which,  above  all  others,  the  Holy  Spirit  is  striving  to  bring 
about,  and  would  not  strive  were  men  entirely  willing. 
How  can  it  then  be  conceived,  except  by  the  ingeniousness 
of  a  self-deceiving  mind,  that  the  renovating  Spirit,  sent 
expressly  by  God  to  draw  to  Christ,  is  an  obstacle  to  any 
man's  coming  to  Christ?  There  must  be  some  other  obsta- 
cle. If  a  man  is  but  willing  to  come,  and  will  come,  he  has 
all  the  power  of  God  to  help  him  to  come. 

In  regard  to  the  doctrine  of  -election,  which  is  involved  in 
this  difficulty  respecting  the  Holy  Spirit's  operations,  it 
does  not  present,  at  the  present  day,  so  common  an  obstacle 


§   46.       TREATMENT    OF    DIFFERENT    CLASSES.  575 

as  it  did  formerly  witli  those  educated  under  the  intensely 
doctrinal  preaching  of  New  England,  and  we  will  not  dwell 
upon  it.  It  offers  no  difficulty  when  rightly  viewed ;  and 
surely  this  profound  New-Testament  doctrine  should  not 
be  given  up  through  a  weak  sympathy ;  for,  intelligently 
regarded,  it  is  a  glorious  doctrine ;  in  fact,  the  foundation 
of  Christian  hope.  It  tends  to  produce  both  humility 
and  hope.  In  the  words  of  the  apostle,  ""'Blessed  he  the 
God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  hath 
blessed  us  ivith  all  spiritual  blessings  in  heavenly  places  in 
Christ  Jesus,  according  as  he  hath  chosen  us  in  him  before 
the  foundation  of  the  world.''''  Dr.  Chalmers  was  accustomed 
to  say  that  "he  was,  with  Jonathan  Edwards,  a  necessita- 
rian;" but  he  added,  "I  would  always  wish  to  be  borne  in 
mind  a  saying  of  Bishop  Butler,  that  Ave  have  not  so  much 
to  inquire  what  God  does,  as  what  are  the  duties  that  we 
owe  to  him  ; "  and  thus  the  pastor  should  teach  this  doc- 
trine practically,  in  connection  with  our  obligations  to  God, 
in  connection  with  Christ,  and  in  relation  to  the  whole  scope 
and  freedom  of  the  gospel,  addressed  as  it  is  sincerely  to 
every  soul  for  whom  Christ  died.  That  is  the  way  Paul 
originally  taught  it,  who  was  proving  to  the  Jews  that  they 
were  not  alone  the  elect  people  of  God,  but  that  all  who  are 
in  Christ, — the  children  of  Abraham  by  faith,  are  truly 
chosen  unto  eternal  life,  are  the  elect  people  of  God.  They 
are  those  "'  loho  are  written  in  the  Lamb's  booh  of  life"  who 
are  saved  by  his  work  and  mediation.  God  is  blessedly 
sovereign  in  spiritual  things ;  but  it  is  the  sovereignty  of 
the  Father,  in  connection  with  the  love  of  the  Son,  and 
the  work  of  the  Spirit. 

We  cannot  know  the  secret  history  of  a  single  soul,  and 
the  foundations  of  its  responsibility  are  lost  to  our  view ; 
and  how  much  less  can  we  know  the  deep  counsels  of  God 
and  the  gi'ounds  of  his  action  toward  any  soul,  excepting 
that  we  have  a  general  belief  in  the  perfect  goodness  of  all 
that  he  does;  we  should,  therefore,  teach  this  doctrine  in 


576  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

close  connection  with  free  and  sincere  invitations  of  the 
gospel,  interpreting  God  by  himself.  Wc  should  avoid  as 
much  as  possible  in  our  dealing  with  inquiring  souls  the 
speculative  side  of  truth,  and  of  this  truth;  for  on  its  jjrac- 
tical  side  there  is  no  difficulty.  This  doctrine  is  really  for 
the  mature  Christian  to  contemplate,  and  the  simple  inquirer 
cannot  possibly  have  the  same  comprehension  of  it,  or  sym- 
pathy with  it ;  when  he  grows  into  the  spiritual  stature  of 
the  apostle,  he  will  love  this  truth,  and  find  in  its  greatest 
difficulties  his  highest  places  of  satisfaction  and  delight. 

(5.)  From  wishing  to  hnoia  more  of  spiritual  tilings 
hefore  coming  to  Christ.  This  belongs  to  the  same  class  of 
ol)stacles  and  mental  hinderanccs  as  the  previous  difficulty. 
The  inquirer  desires  to  know  more  about  the  unseen  world 
of  faith,  and  to  act  intelligently.  He  is  not  yet  clear 
upon  all  the  doctrines  of  Christianity ;  how  can  he  then 
become  a  Christian?  It  is,  indeed,  right  to  desire  to  know 
the  truth,  to  obtain  all  the  light  one  can ;  but  to  know  all 
before  one  believes,  and  is  a  Christian,  is  a  premature  wish. 
One  is  by  no  means  permitted  to  enter  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  and  survey  it  with  a  cool  curiosity,  before  entering 
it  by  the  humble  door  of  repentance  and  ftiith. 

He  that  doeth  the  ivill  shall  know  of  the  doctrine;  he  can- 
not enter  by  the  door  of  knowledge  ;  he  cannot  gain  insight 
into  spiritual  things  by  a  mental  eflbrt ;  even  as  Christ 
said  to  Peter,  "  Blessed  art  thou,  Simon  Bar-Jona;  for  flesh 
and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my  Father  which 
is  in  heaven."  It  is  for  one,  first  of  all,  ignorant  as  he  may 
be,  wanting  all  that  God  can  alone  give,  to  come  to  Christ 
as  Teacher,  and  learn  of  him  ;  and  whether  he  has  more  or 
less  light,  as  a  sinner  he  should  come  trustfully  to  Christ 
for  light  and  life,  and  all  things.  Questions  about  knowl- 
edge and  experience,  light  and  peace,  hope  and  happiness, 
and  every  previous  manifestation  of  what  really  belongs 
to  the  Christian  life,  are  not  of  primary  importance  to  the 
inquirer;  and  darkness  of  mind  upon   any  doctrine,  forms 


§  46.       TREATMENT    OF   DIFFERENT    CLASSES.  577 

really  no  obstacle  to  one's  coming  to  Christ,  but  is  the  great 
reason  ivliy  he  should  come.  One  should  do  those  things 
that  he  does  know,  and  then  he  will  know  more.  There 
may  be  many  doctrines  of  Christianity  that  one  does  not 
understand,  as  was  the  case  with  the  earliest  Christians,  who 
did  not  sometimes  clearly  apprehend  the  divinity  of  the 
Lord,  and  yet  he  may  be  able  to  repent  of  his  sins  and 
exercise  a  simple  trust  in  Christ. 

(c.)  From,  an  apprehension  that  something  more  must  be 
done  by  him  in  ivay  of  preparation  before  coming  to  the 
Saviour,  He  has  such  an  exalted  conception  of  the  Chris- 
tian character,  and  he  feels  himself  to  be  so  far  from  this 
high  excellence,  that  he  has  much  to  do  before  he  can  pre- 
sume to  hope  to  be  a  Christian.  He  has,  as  it  were,  to 
level  a  mountain.  He  must  make  himself  a  Christian  before 
he  can,  through  coming  to  Christ,  begin  to  be  one.  He  must 
be  rid  of  many  faults  and  sins  before  he  can  dare  to  apply 
to  God.  He  must  fit  himself  to  come  to  God  and  be  saved. 
When,  therefore,  he  does  come  to  Christ  (if  we  could  make 
the  supposition),  he  is,  in  fact,  independent  of  Christ's  aid, 
for  he  has  done  the  work  for  himself.  "Him  that  cometh 
unto  me  I  ivill  in  no  wise  cast  out."  To  be  a  Christian  is  but 
to  begin  to  serve  God,  trusting  in  Christ;  and  if  one  is  not 
willing  to  take  Christ  at  the  beginning,  at  the  first  step  in 
true  goodness,  he  can  hardly  hope  to  obtain  him  and  his  sal- 
vation. "  Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea,"  is  the  sinner's 
watchword. 

(c?.)  From  a  real  unbelief  in  the  necessity  of  Christ's  in- 
tercession. God  is  a  common  Father,  and  wh}^  may  not  any 
human  soul  come  and  cast  itself  directly  upon  God's  fatherly 
love,  and  let  the  Christian  plan  of  saving  through  Christ,  go 
by?  The  truth  might  be  brought  home  to  such  a  mind,  that 
it  could  not  have  discovered  that  God  is  "  love  ;  "  that  he  is 
a  Father,  ready  to  receive  the  prodigal  back  to  his  love,  if 
Christ  had  not  revealed  this.  That  was  just  what  the  Son 
of  God  came  into  the  world  to  do.  That  is  the  truth  of 
49 


578  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

Christianity.  If  men  would  themselves  come  to  the  Father, 
Christ  had  not  died,  and  there  would  be  no  need  of  the 
gospel. 

The  incarnation,  sufferings,  and  death  of  the  Son  of  God, 
were  not,  reverently  to  say  it,  designed  to  shut  up  the  way 
of  salvation  to  one  exclusive  method  ;  but  were  they  not 
intended  to  bring  men  to  God  by  the  only  way  possible? 
Were  they  not  God's  consummate  method  of  love,  to  effect 
the  object?  They  took  place  in  order  to  open  to  men  the 
way  of  reconciliation  to  God,  to  prove  God's  love  and  will- 
ingness to  receive  erring  men,  to  give  them  confidence  to 
come  to  God  in  Christ,  although  sinners.  Let  us  be  sure 
that  if  men  would  of  themselves  return  to  their  heavenlj'^ 
Father,  and  be  obedient  and  holy  men  from  the  heart, 
Christ  would  not  have  come  to  earth  and  hung  on  the 
cross.  It  would  have  been  a  needless  sacrifice.  But  God 
knew  the  depth  of  sin,  and  the  depth  of  men's  alienation 
from  him.  He  knew  that  men  had  forsaken  God,  and  that 
they  would  not  repent  of  their  sins  and  do  holily,  had  he 
not  brought  to  bear,  through  his  Son,  the  powerful  agencies 
of  his  love  and  Spirit. 

Neither  would  repentance  alone  without  Christ  be  suffi- 
cient to  save  men  ;  for  even  the  natural  mind,  when  it  thinks, 
perceives  that  though  it  may  sincerely  strive  to  do  good, 
there  is  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  transgressor  s  truly 
coming  to  God,  which  is  to  be  fii"st  removed ;  and  the  great 
demand  of  the  human  heart  has  ever  been,  "  Wherewith  shall 
I  come  before  the  Lord?^^  The  reinstalment  and  vindica- 
tion of  the  divine  law  of  right  and  holiness  in  the  soul 
itself,  which  the  sinner  has  consciously  and  deliberately 
broken,  are  needed.  Men  feel  that  they  have  sinned,  sinned 
against  God,  sinned  against  their  true  and  higher  nature, 
and  are  thus  liable  to  woe  and  death.  Sin  inflicts  a  wound 
which  is  immedicable  by  human  means,  for  sin  carries  no 
hope  of  future  restoration  within  itself.  A  sense  of  guilt 
hangs  over  the  soul.     This  inevitably  separates  between  the 


§  46.       TREATMENT   OF    DIFFERENT   CLASSES.  579 

soul  and  God.  There  must  be  the  forgiveness  of  sin,  axy(\. 
the  taking  away  of  its  condemnation  and  power,  before  there 
can  be  real  peace.  "Repentance,"  Joubert  finely  says,  "  is  the 
effort  of  the  soul  to  throw  off  its  natural  corruptions  ;  "  but  it 
is  faith  alone  that  enables  it  successfully  to  do  so.  Through 
Christ's  perfect  obedience  in  his  human  nature  of  the  divine 
law,  and  his  perfect  sacrifice  for  sin,  this  corruption  of  sin 
in  our  nature  is  removed,  and  its  just  fear  done  away.  Not 
only  the  power  of  sin  is  broken,  but  a  new  principle  of  holy 
life  is  implanted.  Christ  came  to  give  "remission  of  sins," 
and  also  "to  destroy  sin  in  the  flesh."  Though  it  is  a  mys- 
tery of  love  and  grace,  the  great  obstacle  of  sin,  past  and 
present,  is  taken  away  by  our  appropriation  through  faith 
of  Christ's  mediation  for  sin. 

He,  therefore,  who  truly  desires  to  come  to  the  Father, 
should  rejoice  that  Christ  has  opened  the  way  for  him  to 
do  so;  that  he  has  removed  every  obstacle.  " I  am  the 
ivay ;  no  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  me."  The  cahu 
words,  "loe  have  peace  in  believing,"  and  "there  is  noto, 
therefore,  no  condemnation  to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus," 
cannot  apply  to  those  persons  who  think  they  can  come,  or 
have  come,  to  God,  without  Christ ;  Avho  seek  for  peace 
simply  in  the  good  of  their  own  minds,  and  not  in  first 
trusting  the  goodness  and  righteousness  of  God. 

(e.)  From  suj^jposing  that  in  view  of  such  truths  as  the 
great  guilt  of  sin,  and  the  stupendous  retributions  of  eternity, 
one  should  be  more  affected  and  alarmed  than  he  is.  One 
cannot  come  to  Christ  and  be  saved  because  he  does  not  feel 
more  deeply.  He  should  be  brought,  he  thinks,  into  a  lively 
distress  of  mind,  and  thus  be  driven  by  his  distress  to  Christ 
for  relief.  He  would  have  emotions  deep  enough  to  prove 
to  himself  that  his  soul  is  moved  by  God,  —  pangs  that  are 
in  some  measure  commensurate  with  his  sinful  condition. 

He  should  be  deeply  moved  in  view  of  such  truths ;  and 
if  there  is  anything  which  will  awaken  in  the  soul  the  most 
poignant  anguish,  it  is  the  view  of  its  unsatisfactory  rela- 


580  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

tioDS  to  God,  of  its  own  sin.  But  does  God  tell  us  how 
much  or  how  little  distress  one  must  experience  before  he 
does  his  simple  duty?  We  are  indeed  told  that  we  must 
have  repentance;  but  what  is  repentance  (/ueTdrout)  in  its 
essence  ?  It  is  "  change  of  mind  "  from  that  which  is  evil 
to  that  which  is  good,  from  that  which  is  unholy  to  that 
which  is  holy.  It  is  a  moral  act.  Christian  repentance 
involves  feeling  because  it  involves  the  heart  as  well  as  the 
intellect,  conscience,  and  will.  It  is  such  a  heartfelt  view 
of  our  sins,  and  such  a  willingness  to  make  confession  of 
them  to  God,  as  to  lead  us  to  forsake  them  utterly.  The 
forsaking  of  sin,  the  turning  from  it  to  God,  with  the  whole 
being,  is  the  essence  of  repentance.  Every  one  who  be- 
comes a  Christian  must  be  convicted  (convinced)  of  sin,  and 
must  be  made  willing  to  turn  from  sin  to  God  ;  but  how 
singular  it  is  that  the  thing  most  repellent  to  the  mind,  — 
pain  for  its  own  wrong-doing,  —  should  be  made  a  reason 
for  not  obeying  God,  and  coming  to  him  in  simple  trust. 
What  a  degrading  conception  of  God  this  springs  from,  as 
if  he  were  not/' love  "  but  "fear,"  as  if  he  indeed  required 
sacrifice  and  not  mercy. 

That  which  is  needed  by  the  seeker  after  a  higher  life  is 
not  to  feel,  but  to  be.  It  is  essential  for  him  to  obey  and 
love  God,  whether  he  feels  more  or  less ;  and  as  Fenelon 
says,  it  takes  no  time  to  love  God.  There  is  no  time  in 
eternal  things ;  if  God  is  ever  worthy  of  our  love,  he  is  so 
at  this  moment,  and  always.  "He  that  hath  my  command- 
ments and  Jceepeth  them,  he  it  is  that  loveth  wze."  Let  the 
will  of  God  be  done,  and  let  the  soul  come  in  penitent  faith 
to  its  God  and  Father ;  that  is  all  that  is  necessary.  Faith 
rather  than  feeling  is  required.  The  real  believer  will 
probably  have  more  feeling,  and  more  poignancy  of  feeling, 
after,  than  before,  his  conversion ;  for  a  more  intimate  com- 
munion with  God  and  holy  things  opens  the  heart  to  the 
tenderest,  profoundest  emotion,  and  often  to  the  greatest 
distress  on  account  of  sin ;  and  yet  this  is  not  saying  that 


§  46.       TREATMENT    OF   DIFFERENT    CLASSES.  581 

true  repentance  is  not  commouly  accompanied  by  a  profound 
feeling  of  sorrow  for  sin. 

(y. )  From  real  umvillingness  to  incur  all  the  responsibili- 
ty of  becoming  a  true  Christian.  Here  will  generally  be 
found  to  be  the  main  stress  of  the  difficulty  of  inquirers,  — 
a  real  unwillingness  to  take  up  the  cross  and  follow  Christ. 
The  heart  is  a  subtle  corrupter  of  the  best  intentions.  One 
may  have  even  gone  so  far  as  to  fall  upon  his  kees,  and 
to  implore  God  to  change  his  heart,  and  to  take  away 
his  sins,  and  to  make  him  a  true  Christian;  but  at  the 
time  he  is  engaged  in  this  attempt  to  pray,  does  he  truly 
desire  to  have  his  prayer  answered?  And  what  is  the  ob- 
stacle ?  It  may  be  that  he  is  not  yet  willing  to  follow  Christ 
through  good  and  evil  report,  and  all  manner  of  trial,  yes, 
if  necessary,  to  death.  That  is  a  searching  thought.  That  is 
a  strange,  but  not  uncommon  fact  in  the  history  of  the  soul, 
of  one's  praying  to  be  made  the  child  of  Christ,  and  yet  down 
in  the  secret  depths  of  his  heart,  not  loilUng  that  his  prayer 
should  be  heard,  not  being  yet  ready  to  make  that  entire 
surrender  to  Christ,  that  he  is  praying  God  to  effect  in  him. 
When  one  comes  to  Christ  it  amounts  to  this,  that  there  is 
nothing  he  is  not  willing  at  the  command  of  God  to  surren- 
der to  Christ,  and  for  Christ's  sake.  With  one.  man  the 
form  of  non-surrender  may  be  the  strength  of  the  covetous 
principle  as  it  was  developed  in  the  young  ruler  at  the  touch 
of  Christ,  "  Jie  went  away  sorroivful ,  for  he  had  great  posses- 
sions; "  with  another  it  is  the  power  of  some  evil  appetite; 
with  another  it  is  the  ambitious  principle,  or  the  determina- 
tion to  acquire  earthly  poAver,  distinction,  place ;  and  with 
another  it  is  the^mZe  of  intellect.  This  pride  of  opinion  is 
not  unfrequently  found  among  intellectual  men,  and  is 
strong  enough  sometimes  to  drive  a  man  of  fine  mind  far 
from  Christ  into  the  frozen  regions  of  infidelity.  He  says 
there  have  been  great  thinkers  who  have  rejected  the  Chris- 
tian faith.  I  therefore,  though  I  am  no  opposer,  and  wish 
to  know  the  truth,  cannot  go  with  the  crowd  of  men  in  sub- 
49* 


582  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

mitting  without  a  struggle  my  free  mind  to  a  faith  of  which 
I  ain  not  j^et  thoroughly  convinced ;  I  prefer  to  stand  calmly 
for  a  while  with  this  or  that  one  who  rises  above  the  mass 
of  men  as  a  tower.  I  would  rather  err  with  Plato,  than  be 
right  with  those  simple  ones.  Or,  it  may  be,  if  he  does  not 
go  so  far  as  this,  he  thinks  that  if  he  could  but  shape  Chris- 
tianity according  to  his  own  conception  of  a  true  religion  ;  if 
he  could  rationalize  faith,  and  take  out  of  it  its  mystical  or 
mysterious  element,  and  make  it  on  a  level  with  natural 
religion  and  with  his  own  reason,  he  would  have  pleas- 
ure in  calling  Christ  his  Lord.  The  pastor  might  set  forth 
the  truth  that  no  man  is  called  to  believe  against  his  reason  ; 
but  Christianity  lays  on  every  man  the  obligation  to  searcli ; 
and  to  bring  to  this  inquiry  a  humble  and  teachable  spirit. 
Without  entering  here  into  the  rational  defence  of  Chris- 
tianity, it  may  be  seen  at  once  that  the  attitude  of  a  person,  — 
such  as  has  been  described,  —  is  one  not  yet  prepared  to 
enter  the  kingdom  of  God ;  for  this  making  of  conditions, 
as  it  were,  with  God,  before  coming  to  Christ,  will  not 
allow  a  man  to  be  saved  while  the  world  stands.  The  in- 
stance also  of  one  who  supposes  that  his  mental  state  is 
peculiar,  and  that  he  has  peculiar  difficulties,  that  there 
never  was  a  case  like  his ;  this  is  another  illustration  of  the 
same  intellectual  pride.  But  pride  of  any  kind  is  opposed 
to  faith ;  and  when  we  see  human  wisdom  joined  to  fallibili- 
ty, human  strength  stumbling  on  the  edge  of  imbecility, 
human  morality  slaying  itself  with  its  own  vanity,  and  even 
human  goodness  overborne  by  native  selfishness,  why  should 
there  be  pride  in  the  sight  of  a  perfect  God?  The  true 
glory  of  our  nature  begins  in  the  depths  of  a  humbled  spirit ; 
in  the  death  of  the  self,  to  find  the  true  self,  the  higher 
life,  in  God. 

We  might  also  mention  ihQ  fear  of  man,  the  fear  of  losing 
popularity,  of  losing  one's  social  status,  of  being  looked 
upon  as  bigoted,  as  a  very  common  hinderance  to  young 
persons   in  the  way  of  doing  that  act  of  faith  toward  an 


§   46.       TREATMENT    OF    DIFFERENT    CLASSES.  583 

unseen  God,  which  has  nothing  brilliant  in  it,  which  appeals 
in  no  form  or  sense  to  the  ambitious  principle,  or  to  selfish 
interest ;  and  which,  on  the  contrary,  is  a  real  humiliation 
of  the  outer  man. 

But  we  will  dwell  no  longer  upon  these  difiiculties  and 
delusions  of  the  will  and  the  imagination,  which  the  truly 
Mnwilling  mind  creates  for  itself,  because  it  must  find  some- 
thing false  to  prop  itself  upon,  when  it  refuses  to  rest  upon 
the  true.  The  words  of  Christ  are  explicit,  "  Whosoever'  he 
he  of  you  ivho  forsaheth  not  all  that  he  hath,  he  cannot  he  my 
disciple.'" 

In  regard,  then,  to  the  "difficulties  which  beset  the  in- 
quirer after  eternal  life,  it  may  be  seen  that  there  is  no 
obstacle  which  can  really  stand  the  test  of  truth  in  the 
way  of  the  inquirers  who  approach  the  Redeemer  by  an 
act  of  faith ;  who  bring  to  him  their  wants,  confess  to  him 
their  sins,  consecrate  to  him  their  powers,  and  receive  from 
him  his  word  of  peace  and  everlasting  life.  The  pastor 
should  then  exhort  to  an  immediate  coming  to  Christ,  — 
an  immediate  and  entire  surrender  to  his  divine  claims. 
Let  him  urge  the  inquirer  to  disregard  unessentials,  and  to 
do  the  main  thing.  Union  by  faith,  with  a  personal  Re- 
deemer, is  the  way  of  salvation.  Press  to  an  instant  choice 
of  Christ,  to  a  casting  of  the  soul  upon  him  by  faith.  It 
is  not  thinking,  or  knowing,  or  reasoning,  or  feeling,  or 
doing,  but  it  is  helieving  on  Christ  with  the  whole  heart, 
that  brings  new  life  and  salvation  into  the  soul. 

But  let  the  pastor  be  aware  of  the  truth,  that  there  are 
differences  in  the  circumstances  of  conversion,  though  none 
in  the  w^ay  of  salvation.  These  differences  spring  from 
the  character  of  the  inquirer,  and  also  from  the  freedom  of 
the  Spirit's  action.  The  Spirit  is  not  bound.  All  to  whom 
Christ  is  made  known,  who  are  converted,  must,  indeed, 
have  come  to  the  Saviour ;  but,  with  one  man  the  conver- 
sion may  take  the  form  of  a  solemn  dedication  of  his  whole 
being  to  Christ ;   with  another  man  it  may  be  an  act  of 


584  PASTOEAL   OFFICE. 

simple  obedience  to  the  commaudment  of  Christ,  of  doing 
his  plain  and  reasonable  duty ;  with  another  it  may  be  the 
abandonment  of  a  sinful  propensity  or  affection ;  with  an- 
other it  may  be  a  new  interest  felt  in  the  words  and  truth 
of  Christ,  in  the  Scriptures,  or  in  the  preaching-  of  the 
gospel,  so  that  there  is  a  clear  vision  of  divine  things,  even 
as  he  who  said,  "  Whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I  see;  "  and  with 
another,  still,  it  may  be  a  sudden  and  uncontrollable  emo- 
tion of  joy,  like  a  burst  of  sunlight,  to  have  found  at  last 
the  Redeemer  of  the  soul. 

Who  can  tell  what  will  be  the  first  holy  act  of  a  soul? 
Can  we  always  know  what  direction  the  waters  of  a  great 
river  will  take  when  they  burst  their  icy  fetters?  They 
may  move  on  evenly  in  the  regular  channel  marked  out 
for  them,  or  they  may  deluge  the  banks,  and  plough  for 
themselves  a  new  channel.  Yet  there  is  a  moment  when 
the  will  yields  itself  to  the  higher  claims  of  God,  and 
does  its  first  holy  act ;  when  its  hesitancy  and  unbelief 
pass  away,  when  it  delights  to  do  holily.  Sometimes 
a  step,  almost  literally  a  step,  in  the  right  direction,  away 
from  sin,  and  toward  Christ,  results  in  the  salvation  of  the 
soul.  A  single  act,  perhaps  a  very  small  one,  of  the 
heart's  true  movement  and  disposition  to  come  to  Christ,  is 
all  that  is  needed. 

The  humblest  prayer  uttered  in  the  depths  of  the  heart, 
like  the  publican's,  the  secret  tear  of  true  submission  and 
trust,  the  Lord  will  recognize  and  accept ;  and  here  is  the 
pastor's  great  responsibility,  to  perceive  the  true  marks  of 
the  beginnings  of  new-born  faith,  however  faint;  and  not 
by  coldness,  or  harshness,  or  inexcusable  neglect,  or  cruel 
ignorance,  "to  break  the  bruised  reed,  or  to  quench  the 
smoking  flax."  He  who  but  desires  to  come  to  Christ  is  in 
the  way  to  him.  Let  the  feeblest  desire  be  cherished.  Bid 
the  soul  go  on,  and  follow  out  this  little  thread  of  desire  till 
it  shall  lead  to  the  feet  of  Jesus  !  Beware  of  extinguish- 
ing the  beginnings  of  repentance,  by  overlaying  them  with 


§  46.       TREATMENT    OF    DIFFERENT   CLASSES.  585 

requiremeuts  hard  for  the  mature  Christian  to  bear.  If  we 
do  this,  instead  of  being  the  ministers  of  Christ's  new  evan- 
gel of  hope  and  love,  we  may  be  but  as  the  old  Hebrew 
priests  and  lawyers  of  the  law  of  condemnation  and  death. 
We  should  ever  remember  that  "a  little  faith  saves." 

In  conversing  with  the  inquirer,  one  should  be  exceed- 
ingly simple  in  language  and  thought.  Do  not  be  afraid  of 
using  the  plainest  and  homeliest  illustrations,  even  with  the 
most  intelligent  people  who  are  beginning  to  seek  the  way 
of  life ;  for  they  are  but  infants  in  spiritual  things.  One 
should  also  be  cheerful  and  hopeful.  Even  when  most 
earnest  and  faithful,  do  not  grow  anxious  and  threatening; 
do  not  appear  over-solicitous  for  the  welfare  of  the  inquirer, 
for  God  is  more  in  earnest  than  the  best  man  can  be,  that 
his  erring  child  should  be  saved.  Never  leave  the  impres- 
sion that  God  is  not  able  and  willing  to  save  the  soul ;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  that  he  will  surely  save  the  soul,  if  it  trusts 
in  him. 

And  do  not  say  too  much.  One  should  strive  to  say  the 
jit  word,  rather  than  to  heap  up  words ;  the  right  word  is 
the  great  thing.  Touch  the  real  difficulty,  and  be  satisfied 
to  do  that.  Give  the  proper  medicine  for  the  disease.  Do 
not  sufler  yourself  to  be  led  awaj^  from  the  subject  you  wish 
to  talk  upon  into  some  general  discussion ;  for  the  mind 
is  skilful  in  evasions,  as  was  said  of  one  of  old,  who,  when 
he  "  saw  that  there  icas  respite,  he  hardened  his  heart" 

Do  not  suffer  the  awakened  mind  to  rest  for  its  hope  in 
any  outward  means  or  object,  in  prayer,  reading  the  Scrip- 
tures, attending  religious  meetings,  the  doing  of  any  duty, 
or  of  any  act,  however  good  and  charitable.  Show  him 
the  true  place  and  use  of  those  things ;  but  show  him  that 
eternal  life  is  in  God  alone,  in  personal  union  with  God  and 
Christ.  And  in  this  light  even  faith  does  not  save ;  but  it 
is  Christ,  the  divine  object  of  faith,  who,  when  he  is  truly 
found,  gives  to  the  soul  its  new  lite,  by  making  it  a  partaker 
of  his  own. 


586  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

Discrimination  in  the  treatment  of  inquirers  is  required, 
and  we  should  particularly  study  the  exquisite  adaptation 
of  Christ's  teachings,  in  his  recorded  dealings  with  the  souls 
of  those  who  were  seeking  the  kingdom  of  God.  Some 
persons  are  inclined  to  despondency,  and  need  encourage- 
ment, while  others  are  sanguine,  and  need  an  abating  of 
their  confidence. 

The  real  disposition  comes  out  strikingly  in  this  moment 
when  the  soul  is  stripped  of  its  disguises  under  the  search- 
ing eye  of  God.  Mild  words  are  good  for  some,  but  severe, 
alarmii]g,  terror-striking  words  are  better  for  others.  Some 
inquirers  who  are  wanting  in  self-reliance,  are  to  be  dis- 
suaded from  conversing  with  too  many  persons ;  and  they 
should  be  led  away  from  all  human  reliance,  from  reliance 
on  the  pastor  himself,  to  God.  Persons  of  an  undecided 
temper  in  other  things  will  show  this  in  matters  of  religion. 

Sometimes  it  is  even  necessary  to  urge  such  irresolute 
persons  to  make  a  solemn  resolution,  or  covenant,  with 
God,  a  dedication  of  themselves  to  God,  in  a  set  form  of 
words.  But  this  is  a  perilous  step  to  take,  for  it  is  an  out- 
side pressure  brought  to  bear  iqion  the  soul ;  and  one 
should  be  careful  not  to  suffer  the  mind  of  the  inquirer  to 
consider  this  resolution  as  being  in  itself  an  evidence  of 
conversion.  If,  however,  one  makes  the  resolution  from 
the  heart,  it  is  surely  an  evidence  of  true  conversion. 

Set  before  the  inquirer  the  grand  attractions  of  the  gospel ; 
tell  him  he  is  not  called  to  give  up  the  pleasures  of  the 
w^orld  and  receive  nothing  in  return,  or  to  espouse  a  barren, 
unrewarding  faith ;  but  in  Christ  are  peace,  happiness, 
honor,  power,  riches,  true  manhood,  perfection  of  charac- 
ter, unending  love,  and  everlasting  life.  The  gospel  appeals 
to  the  noblest  instincts  and  unlimited  hopes  of  our  nature. 
In  it  we  realize  our  ideals.  While  we  preach  the  cross, 
we  should  never  forget  the  crown. 

Prayer  with  the  inquirer  is  sometimes  good ;  and  as  it 
may  be  the  first  time  that  the  stubborn  knees  have  ever 


§  46.       TREATMENT   OF   DIFFEEENT   CLASSES.  587 

bowed,  the  impenitent  will  may  yield  when  the  knees  are 
bent.  The  confessions  of  inquiring  and  troubled  spirits 
should  be  sacredly  preserved  ;  otherwise  the  pastoral  rela- 
tion would  be,  and  would  deserve  to  be,  destroyed. 

3.    The  young  convert. 

There  is  no  sight  more  pathetic  than  a  young  Christian 
in  the  first  glow  of  his  new  love,  knowing  little  of  what  lies 
before  him,  and  thinking  perhaps  that  his  salvation  is  gained 
and  the  work  done.  The  pathetic  part  of  it  is,  that  he  lives 
as  yet  in  the  ideal  of  Christianity,  and  when  the  actual 
comes,  his  strength  may  be  found  to  be  weakness.  If  any 
one,  therefore,  needs  kindness,  counsel,  charity,  patience, 
continual  support  and  encouragement,  it  is  he.  He  needs 
instruction,  building  up,  in  the  things  of  the  new  life. 

(1.)  Strive  to  lead  the  convert  to  a  j^ure  conviction  of  sin 
and  a  high  standard  of  piety .  Let  him  lay  the  foundations 
deep.  Conviction  should  not  cease  at  conversion,  but 
should  rather  increase  in  intensity  as  the  mind  draws  nearer 
a  pure  God,  and  has  a  clearer  insight  of  its  own  character ; 
and  while  the  mind  is  softened  by  these  fires  of  conviction, 
it  may  be  stamped  with  the  highest,  noblest  type  of  Chris- 
tian character.  Let  the  pastor  feel  how  critical  is  the 
moment  with  the  new  convert's  soul,  and  let  him  strive,  as 
far  as  in  him  lies,  that  the  work  may  be  thorough,  that  the 
perfect  image  of  Christ  may  be  set  before  the  mind,  as  its 
everlasting  pattern  and  hope.  '^ Abide  in  me,  and  I  in  you; 
as  the  branch  cannot  bear  fruit  of  itself,  except  it  abide  in 
the  vine:  no  more  can  ye,  except  ye  abide  in  me."  The 
young  convert  should  be  told  that  he  is  called  not  so  much 
to  happiness  as  to  holiness,  and  to  real  service ;  and  that 
final  salvation  consists  not  in  the  feeble  beginnings  of  good- 
ness, but  in  the  perfected  life  of  God  in  the  soul. 

(2.)  JSfourish  the  mind  in  divine  truth  and  with  the  words 
of  Christ.  This  is  the  time  to  feed  the  mind  upon  the  word, 
that  it  may  grow  thereby  ;  for  then  it  receives  it  gladly  ;  it 


588  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

finds  its  real  nourishment  and  delight  in  divine  truth. 
Then  the  soul  should  be  indoctrinated  in  higher  wisdom, 
and  be  founded  upon  a  broad  and  intelligent  faith. 

Some  system  of  regular  instruction  of  those  newly  ex- 
pressing a  hope  should  be  established,  like  the  excellent 
Methodist  class  system.  The  special  instruction  of  young 
converts  is  moulding  the  model  before  the  clay  is  dry ; 
and,  as  far  as  the  pastor  is  concerned,  the  work  should  be 
faultless. 

(3.)  Direct  to  an  immediate  entering  ujion  the  active  ser- 
vice of  the  Master,  The  young  convert  need  not  be  urged  at 
first  to  the  taking  up  of  great  or  disheartening  works,  but 
he  should  be  guided  into  the  path  of  true  service  in  simple 
ways  ;  to  visit  the  poor,  to  aid  by  all  practicable  efibrts  some 
benevolent  object,  to  instruct  in  the  Sunday  school,  to  pray 
for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  his  companions,  and,  in  every 
unostentatious  way,  to  strive  for  their  good,  and,  above 
all,  to  be  a  good  son,  father,  husband,  citizen,  man.  Such 
things  are  better  than  to  encourage  the  young  convert  to 
be  conspicuous  at  first  in  public  meetings,  or  to  attempt 
publicly  to  instruct  others.  If  he  speaks  at  all,  let  it  be 
briefly,  and  in  the  meetings  of  those  who  are  young  disci- 
ples like  himself,  and  let  him  pray  rather  than  speak.  But 
he  should  prepare  for  a  self-denying  service  of  God  and 
man.  The  age  calls  for  a  vigorous  generation  of  workers, 
and  for  a  religion  that  is  full  of  the  primitive  spirit  of  a 
cheerful  obedience  of  Christ  in  all  good  works.  The  3'oung 
convert  should  be  made  to  think  that  he  can,  with  Christ's 
help,  accomplish  great  things  for  God. 

(4.)  Prepare  the  young  convert  as  early  as  it  is  proper 
to  make  a  public  prof ession  of  his  faith.  The  tendency  now 
is,  perhaps,  to  too  great  haste  in  this ;  but  this  duty,  while 
it  should  not  be  hurried,  should  not  be  delayed.  There 
should  be  sufficient  time,  as  in  the  case  of  the  primitive 
"catechumens,"  for  the  true  probation  of  young  converts, 


§   46.       TEEATMENT   OF   DIFFEEENT   CLASSES.  589 

to  see  whether  the  good  seed  die  not  when  exposed  to  the 
influences  of  the  world. 

But  the  trial  need  only  be  long  enough  for  the  satisfac- 
tory proof  of  the  real  implantation  of  a  principle  of  new 
life  in  the  heart ;  and  anything  like  marked  progress  in 
the  graces  of  the  Christian  life  cannot  be  looked  for. 

(5.)  Do  not  neglect  young  converts.  This  is  a  great  sin 
of  the  churches  ;  and  for  this  reason  as  much  as  for  any 
other,  we  believe  that  the  churches  languish.  Young  con- 
verts feel  keenly  the  least  neglect  on  the  part  of  the  church 
and  the  pastor.  They  still  lean  upon  others.  They  are 
but  infants  of  a  day  in  the  divine  life.  Their  spiritual  light 
is  fitful  and  unsteady,  and  sometimes  they  are  in  total  dark- 
ness. They  require  constant  sympathy,  guidance,  teach- 
ing, encouragement,  lest  their  light  go  out  in  darkness  and 
gloom.  It  is  well  for  the  pastor  to  appoint  meetings  of 
prayer  and  conversation  with  the  j^oung  converts,  to  organ- 
ize them,  as  was  suggested,  into  classes,  if  there  be  a  num- 
ber of  them.  In  such  private  meetings  they  may  be  en- 
couraged to  speak  more  freely  of  themselves,  and  to  pray 
together,  and  thus  be  gradually  trained  to  take  their  place 
and  do  their  part  in  the  church.  Church  members  should 
be  taught  to  be  interested  personally  in  young  converts,  to 
welcome  them  warmly,  to  take  them  literally  under  their 
"  watch,  care,  and  fellowship." 

If  God  gives  to  a  pastor  converts  to  the  truth  he  preaches, 
.it  is  his  duty  to  take  care  of  them,  and  not  to  suffer  them 
to  wander  l)ack  into  the  world.  Young  converts  are  a  joy- 
ful but  anxious  gift  to  the  pastor. 

(6.)  Hold  up  the  truth  that  the  Christian  life  is  a  con- 
flict. Action  and  reaction  are  equal ;  and  when  the  first 
emotions  of  love  subside,  temptations  revive,  and  peace  is 
gone ;  the  tide  of  feeling  recedes,  and  leaves  the  soul  flat 
and  spiritless.  It  is  in  trouble  ;  it  believes  that  its  hope  is 
taken  away ;  but  if  the  young  convert  is  impressed  with  the 

50 


590  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

truth  that  he  cannot  be  at  once  a  perfect  man ;  that  he  must 
not  expect  the  great  results  of  a  Christian  life  at  its  en- 
trance ;  that  he  cannot  have  the  crown  before  he  has  borne 
the  cross ;  that  the  Christian  life,  from  beginning  to  end, 
is  a  constant  struggle,  a  daily  conflict  with  temptation  and 
the  powers  of  evil ;  then  he  is  not  easily  discouraged  and 
strangely  disappointed  at  the  returning  strength  of  the  sin- 
ful principle.  Under  such  stern  but  pure  counsel  the  soul 
of  the  young  Christian  cheerily  rallies  from  defeat;  its 
powers  of  manful  resistance  are  called  out ;  it  finds  itself 
and  its  Saviour.  The  idea  of  self-sacrifice,  the  Avillingness 
to  lose  life  for  Christ's  sake,  is  the  great  and  important  les- 
son for  the  young  Christian  to  learn.  The  strife  against 
selfishness,  which  is  sin,  is  the  life-long  conflict  taken  up  by 
the  young  Christian,  even  as  Luther  translates  (1  Tim.  1  : 
18),  "That  thou  therein  do  a  knightly  work." 

(7.)  Warn  young  converts  as  to  their  friendships,  occu- 
pations, and  daily  walk  and  living.  Books  of  pith  and 
thought,  clearly  defining  religious  principles,  and  full  of 
the  Christian  life,  are  of  special  value  at  such  a  time.  Re- 
ligious biographies  would  be  good,  did  they  not  most  com- 
monly have  a  florid  and  unnatural  coloring ;  did  they  not 
present  an  impossible  piety.  The  "  Acts  of  the  Apostles  " 
presents  a  grand  study  for  this  dawning  period  of  the 
spiritual  life.  It  might  be  asked,  Should  one  throw  up  his 
old  worldly  friendships  when  he  becomes  a  new  man  in 
Christ  Jesus  ?  Not  unless  in  some  way  that  he  cannot  avoid, 
he  is  drawn  by  them  into  temptation  and  wrong  doing ;  but 
he  should,  on  the  contrary,  use  the  power  of  affection  which 
he  holds  over  such  minds  for  their  spiritual  good.  He  has 
become  a  Christian  to  bring  others  to  Christ.  A  Christian 
should  never  be  false  to  his  friendships ;  his  blood  is  not 
chilled ;  his  love  is  not  put  out  by  his  Christianity ;  but 
where  he  cannot  draw  up  a  soul  to  light,  he  cannot  suffer 
himself  to  be  dragged  down  by  it  to  darkness. 

(8.)   Exhort  to  the  duty  of  prayer  and  constant  depen- 


§  47.   OVERSIGHT  OF  THE  CHURCH.         591 

dence  upon  the  Holy  Spirit,  —  to  live  hy  faith  and  not  by 
sight. 

§  47.     Pastoral  Oversight  of  the  Church. 

We  come,  lastly,  to  the  peculiar  province  of  the  Christian 
pastor,  and  what  should  be  to  him  a  "labor  of  love,"  the 
care  of  the  interests  of  the  church  itself,  so  dear  to  the  heart 
of  Christ,  and  which  was  planted  by  his  sufferings  and 
death. 

This  subject  may  be  divided  into  three  parts.  Church 
Membership,  Christian  Nurture ^^dindi  the  Church's  Benevo- 
lent Activity. 

1.    Church  membership. 

(1.)  "The  church  is  no  other  than  the  outward  visible 
representation  of  the  inward  communion  of  believers  with 
the  Redeemer  and  with  one  another;"^  and  in  this  sense, 
wherever  the  church  exists,  it  is  one  body,  inspired  by  one 
spirit,  however  diverse  its  parts  and  members ;  but  in  the 
more  limited  sense,  a  church  is  a  local  society  of  believers, 
united  for  the  true  observance  of  all  Christian  duties  and 
ordinances. 

(2.)   Such  a  Christian  church,  is  organized  to  promote 

the  spiritual  welfare  and  growth  of  its  own  members,  and 

to  ''^  hold  forth  the  word  of  life"  to  other  men.     The  power 

of  such  a  church  consists  in  the  purity  with  which  it  holds 

the  faith,  and  in  the  living  influence  Avhich  that  faith  exerts 

♦ 
upon  the  heart  and  life  of  every  member ;  for  power  is  not 

promised  to  the  church  except  in  the  name  of  Christ,  or 
through  those  moral  and  spiritual  forces  that  he  has  estab- 
lished, or  that  are  in  him;  and  thus  the  church's  power  is 
almost  purely  spiritual;  it  is  not  in  its  numbers,  nor  its 
wealth,  nor  its  intelligence,  nor  even  in  its  practical  benevo- 

'  Neander's  Planting  and  Training,  B.  I.,  c.  i. 


592  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

lencc  or  activity,  but,  essentially,  in  its  faith,  its  true  life  in 
God.  This  power  is  to  be  manifested,  to  be  made  efficient, 
through  the  life  of  its  members,  in  the  M'ay  of  silent  testi- 
mony to  the  truth,  radiating  constantly  from  an  inner  source  ; 
and  also  through  their  preaching  of  the  truth  by  actual 
efforts  to  convert  souls  to  Christ,  to  instruct  the  ignorant,  to 
relieve  the  poor,  to  manifest  the  spirit  of  charity  to  all  men, 
to  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil,  to  reform  every  moral 
abuse  and  wrong,  and  to  give  the  gospel  to  all  who  have 
it  not. 

(3.)  Such  being  the  main  idea  of  the  church,  who  then 
are,  or  are  fitted  to  become,  its  true  members  9  We  answer, 
those  who  have,  and  who  give  credible  evidence  that  they 
have,  a  true  faith  in  Christ.  The  church  has  a  right,  it  is 
true,  to  satisfy  itself  in  regard  to  the  faith  and  character  of 
the  candidate  for  admission  ;  but  no  Christian  church  has  the 
right  to  exclude  a  true  believer;  and  a  pastor  should  have  a 
thorough  understanding  with  his  church,  that  there  should 
be  nothing  in  the  creed,  or  the  articles  of  the  church,  which 
bars  its  entrance  to  a  genuine  believer  in  Christ.  Faith  in 
Christ  credibly  attested,  is  the  only  true  Congregational 
and  scriptural  ground  of  admission  to  the  Christian  church. 
God,  by  his  apostles,  did  not  require  so  much  of  those  who 
were  baptized  out  of  heathenism,  as  he  did  of  the  Jewish 
converts,  or  as  he  does  of  Christians  now;  and  thus  there 
may  be  degrees  of  faith  among  those  received  into  the 
church,  as  there  are  degrees  of  age,  education,  capacity, 
opportunity ;  in  which  ca§,es  the  pastor  is  virtually  called 
upon  to  decide.  He  would  not  require  of  a  child  what  he 
would  of  a  man ;  and  even  among  the  adult  he  would  not 
ask  of  an  ignorant  person,  that  clearness  of  view  m  matters 
of  faith,  which  would  be  naturally  sought  for  in  one  who  has 
had  every  intellectual  and  moral  advantage.  He  must  not 
hold  the  door  close  or  open.  He  must  not  raise  the  standard 
of  admission  unreasonably  high,  but  make  it  a  true  stan- 
dard for  the  particular  case,  leaning,  in  his  imperfect  human 


§  47.       OVERSIGHT   OF   THE    CHURCH.  593 

judgment,  to  the  side  of  charit}'  and  hope.  "The  terms  of 
communion  should  run  parallel  with  the  terms  of  salvation." 
The  church  is  a  school  for  heaven,  and  those  who  come  into 
it  are  not  those  who  are  perfect,  or  who  approximate  to  per- 
fection, but  those  who  need,  and  feel  they  need,  training  in 
knowledge  and  piety,  and  who  are  still  sinful,  ignorant, 
weak. 

(4.)  As  to  the  duties  of  church  members,  while  these 
might  be  formally  stated,  such  as  growth  in  knowledge,  and 
holiness,  pray  erf  ulness,  attention  to  all  church  ordinances 
and  obligations,  mutual  care  and  friendship,  just  and  benev- 
olent living;  yet  so  faras  the  pastor's  influence  upon  the 
duties  and  life  of  church  members  is  concerned,  we  would 
sum  it  up  in  the  production  of  a  true  character,  a  new  spirit 
of  life.  It  is  the  enstamping  of  a  new  and  higher  spirit 
upon  a  people.  It  is  a  ministry  not  so  much  of  outward 
things  as  of  the  spirit,  the  heart,  the  character ;  which  writes 
its  lasting  lines  in  the  most  enduring  qualities  and  affections 
of  the  nature.  To  write  this  epistle  more  and  more  deeply 
in  the  hearts  of  his  people,  and  not  only  his  own  imperfect 
love  and  character,  but  the  abiding  love  of  God,  and  the 
perfect  character  of  Christ,  this  is  the  great  work  of  the  pas- 
tor. He  is  to  strive,  in  the  spirit  of  his  Lord,  and  by  his 
help,  to  present  every  one  of  his  flock  ^^  holy  and  unblamable 
and  unreprovable,"  in  the  sight  of  God ;  and  that  pastorate 
cannot  truly  be  called  a  successful  one,  which  does  not  thus 
write  itself  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  wait  upon  it,  bring- 
ing unto  them  the  living  spirit  of  Christ. 

Here  is  the  test  of  a  pastorate,  and  happy  are  the  pastors 
who  can  abide  this  test !  Can  all  that  are  called  successful 
abide  this  test?  A  true  pastorate  may  not  indeed  have  been 
ofranted  the  success  of  addino^  laro-e  numbers  to  the  visible 
church ;  it  may  not  have  witnessed  any  remarkable  growth 
in  intelligence,  influence,  or  outward  prosperity ;  but  on 
the  hearts  of  the  people  a  genuine  work  must  have  been 
wrought,  the  infusion  of  a  new  spirit,  making  them  true, 
50* 


594  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

upright,  pure,  self-denying,  humble,  happ3%  loving,  good. 
How  impressive  is  that  joassage  from  the  Second  of  Corin- 
thians !  "And  (if  some  among  you  deny  my  sufficiency)  who 
then  is  sufficient  for  these  things?  For  I  seek  no  profit 
(like  most)  by  setting  the  word  of  God  to  sale,  but  I  speak 
from  a  single  heart,  from  the  command  of  God,  as  in  God's 
presence,  and  in  fellowship  with  Christ.  Will  you  say  that 
I  am  again  beginning  to  commend  myself?  Or  think  you 
that  I  need  letters  of  commendation  (like  some  other  man) 
either  to  you  or  from  you?  Nay,  ye  are  yourselves  my 
letter  of  commendation,  a  letter  written  in  my  heart,  known 
and  read  of  all  men  ;  a  letter  coming  manifestly  from  Christ, 
and  committed  to  my  charge  ;  written  not  with  ink,  but  with 
the  spirit  of  the  living  God;  not  upon  tables  of  stone,  but 
upon  the  fleshly  tables  of  the  heart."  ^  It  is  noticeable  that 
the  apostle  changes  somewhat  the  construction  here  ;  first  it 
is  the  people  written  upon  his  own  heart,  and  then  it  seems 
to  be  they  who  are  the  persons  written  upon,  —  a  letter  from 
Christ  written  upon  their  hearts  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  At  all 
events,  it  is  a  sjnritual  writing,  a  writing  upon  the  heart, 
"not  with  ink,  but  with  the  Sj)irit  of  the  living  God."  And 
these  are  the  characters  that  are  written,  ^'J3ut  the  fruit  of 
the  /Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  long  suffering,  gentleness,  good- 
ness, faith,  meekness,  temperance;"  ?a\di  these  are  the  fair 
credentials  of  a  Christian  pastorate,  which  cannot  be  mis- 
taken nor  gainsaid.  We  look,  therefore,  for  a  true  pas- 
toral work,  in  the  production,  by  the  grace  of  God,  of  this 
new  character,  comprehended  in  the  New  Testament  term 
"  charity,"  that  "  charity  out  of  a  pure  heart,  and  a  good  con- 
science, and  faith  unfeigned,"  which  the  apostle  Paul,  in  the 
first  Epistle  to  Timothy,  says  is  the  end  of  all  teaching. 
This  divine  "  charity,"  or  "  love,"  is  the  vital  principle  in 
which  all  Christian  virtues  grow,  the  principle  which  is 
"  the  bond  of  perfectness."      It  is  not   so  much  an  act  as 

'  Conybeare  and  Howson's  translation. 


§  47.       OVERSIGHT   OF   THE   CHURCH.  595 

a  state  of  the  soul,  embracing  all  its  acts,  faculties,  and 
being,  and  bringing  a  soul  and  a  church  to  share  in  the 
spirit  of  God  and  of  Christ,  for  "  he  that  loveth  is  born 
of  God,''  — "  that  they  may  all  be  one,  as  thou,  Father,  art 
in  me,  and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in  us." 

After  thus  setting  forth  this  general  and  comprehensive 
result  of  a  true  pastoral  care  and  oversight  of  the  church, 
it  seems  hardly  necessary  to  enter  into  further  and  more 
minute  particulars.  All  things  indeed  should  be  done  that 
are  needed  to  bring  about  that  grand  consummation,  to 
evolve  that  neio  character,  built  upon  the  sound  and  divine 
principles  of  Christ's  life,  and  inspired  by  his  spirit,  —  that 
heavenlj^  citizenship,  where  all  are  '^  kings  and  priests  wito 
God." 

(5.)  In  the  very  clifBcult  matter  of  the  church's  moral 
oversight  and  discipline,  in  which  the  pastor,  by  his  posi- 
tion, is  constituted  a  leader,  he  is  called  upon  to  exercise 
the  greatest  Avisdom  and  charity.  He  should  always  stren- 
uously insist  upon  the  thorough  doing,  in  spirit  and  letter, 
of  Christ's  own  rule  in  Matt.  18  :  15-18.  The  true  sub- 
jects of  church  discipline  are  those,  and  only  those,  who 
are  guilty  of  such  offences  as  seriously  affect  their  moral  and 
Christian  character,  and  clearly  unfit  them  for  church  mem- 
bership. The  object  of  church  discipline  is,  first  of  all,  to 
reform  and  save  the  offender,  and,  secondly,  to  purify  and 
save  the  church ;  therefore  discipline  should  always  be  con- 
ducted in  a  spirit  of  Christian  love,  and  with  a  merciful 
intent. 

As  to  the  method  of  church  discipline.  Offences  for  which 
discipline  should  be  administered  are  of  two  kinds,  private 
and  public. 

Private  offences  are  those  committed  against  private  indi- 
viduals. The  offended  person  in  such  cases  should  proceed 
strictly  according  to  the  rule  given  in  Matthew.  He  sliould 
first  go  alone  to  the  offender,  open  the  case  to  him  in  a 
Christian  spirit,  and  do  all  he  can  to  bring  about  restitution 


596  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

and  repentance,  instead  of  making  the  offence  public.  This 
is  owed  to  the  offender  himself  as  a  professing  brother  Chris-- 
tian.  If  this  course  has  not  been  previously  taken  in  a 
bond  fide  manner,  the  church  may  refuse,  except  under 
peculiar  circumstances,  to  entertain  the  complaint.  If 
Christian  satisfaction  cannot  be  obtained,  the  comphiinant 
may  take  with  him  two  or  three  other  judicious  brethren  to 
aid  in  reclaiming  the  errins:  brother.  If  these  efforts  are 
unavailing,  a  regular  complaint  is  laid  before  the  church, 
generally  in  writing,  presenting  a  candid  history  of  the  case. 
Public  offences  are  gross,  open,  deliberate  violations  of 
morality,  constituting  public  scandal.  In  these  cases,  pri- 
vate means  to  reclaim  the  offender,  may,  perhaps  in  some 
instances  be  dispensed  with,  or  are  impracticable;  yet  it  is 
always  better  to  follow  the  Saviour's  rule,  because  the 
nature  and  end  of  church  discipline  are  reformative.  When 
explicit  evidence  is  obtained,  the  church  should  at  length 
proceed  to  take  formal  notice  of  the  offence.  A  committee 
of  the  pastor  and  others  should  then  be  appointed  to  con- 
verse with,  and,  if  possible,  reclaim  the  offender.  If  all 
these  ■  efforts  at  reformation  are  totally  unavailing,  after 
thoroughly  sifting  the  case  in  an  impartial  manner,  the  offen- 
der having  ample  time,  means,  and  opportunity  afforded  him 
for  explanation  and  defence,  the  church  is  compelled,  (1.) 
to  issue  an  admonition,  (2.)  to  suspend  communion  (these 
two,  in  fact,  are  really  the  same^),  (3.)  the  means  already 
mentioned  being  in  vain,  to  excommunicate  the  offender. 
Excommunication  is  a  formal  exclusion  from  the  communion 
and  privileges  of  the  church  ;  it  puts  a  person  in  the  position 
of  one  who  is  out  of  the  recognized  fellowship  of  the 
church.  Congregational  Christians  believe  that  excommuni- 
cation  shouk]  take  place  only  for  great  sins,  "clearly  proved, 
a  previous  process  had,  and  the  case  determined  by  the 
whole  church.     Haste  is  the  bane  of  church  rule."^ 

'  Dr.  Bacon.  '■^  Cong.  Diet. 


§  47.       OVERSIGHT   OF   THE   CHURCH.  597 

John  Robinson  said,  "Excommunication  should  be  wholly 
spiritual,  a  merely  rejecting  the  scandalous  from  the  com- 
munion of  the  church,  in  the  holy  sacraments,  and  those 
other  spiritual  privileges  which  are  peculiar  to  the  faithful." 
The  excommunicated  person  should  be  treated  with  kind- 
ness, should  have  the  gospel  preached  to  him,  and  he  may 
be  restored  to  church  fellowship  on  his  repentance  and 
restitution,  giving  the  church  satisfactory  proof  of  his  ref- 
ormation. 

The  quasi  mode  of  excommunication  now  in  vogue,  called 
"  withdrawing  fellowship,"  is  a  milder  method,  not  yet  clear- 
ly established  in  congregational  usage,  but  nevertheless 
advocated  and  practised  by  many  of  our  best  churches.  It 
is  the  quiet  dropping  or  separating  from  the  church  of  those 
members  who,  though  guilty  of  no  gross  sin,  or  essential 
error,  yet  do  not  walk  regularly  as  good  members.  Minor 
irregularities,  such  as  continued  and  persistent  disregard  of 
church  relations,  long  neglect  to  remove  church  connections 
to  churches  in  those  places  where  the  persons  in  question 
have  removed ;  habitual  absence  from  public  worshijD  and 
the  communion  table  ;  the  giving  up  of  a  distinctive  Chris- 
tian hope  and  returning  to  an  avowedly  worldly  life,  — 
are  held  to  be  sufficient  reasons  for  leaving  out  such  useless 
members  from  the  church  membership.  We,  nevertheless, 
are  of  the  opinion  that  the  prime  fault  is  often  with  the 
church  itself;  that  if  Christians  would  but  exercise  kindly 
Christian  fellowship,  and  do  their  duty  faithfully  and  frater- 
nally with  one  another,  and  especially  with  the  erring,  heed- 
ing the  apostolic  injunction,  ^^  brethren,  if  a  manbe  overtaken 
in  a  fault,  ye  which  are  spiritual,  restore  such  an  one  in  a 
spirit  of  meekness,  considering  thyself  lest  thou  also  be  tempt- 
ed; " — "bear  ye  one  another's  burdens,  and  so  fulfil  the  laio 
of  Christ;"  if  this  were  more  generally  done,  matters 
would  rarely  come  to  the  pass  of  the  excision  of  a  member. 

Vinet  remarks  (and  in  this  he  echoes  the  commonest  fact 
of  human  nature)  that  "  the  remonstrances  or  reproofs  which 


598  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

are  a  part  of  pastoral  discipline  are  much  more  easily  dis- 
pensed to  the  poor  and  the  weak  than  the  rich  and  great." 
But  this  preparatory  and  milder  moral  discipline  of  a  church 
in  the  way  of  private  admonition  and  reproof,  is  chiefly  in 
the  pastor's  hands,  and  should  be  done  promptly  and  wise- 
1}^ ;  and  he  should  endeavor,  by  striving  personally  for  the 
reformation  of  the  oflender,  to  prevent  things  from  coming 
before  the  church  for  public  trial  and  adjudication.  Med- 
dling men,  who  have  more  zeal  than  tact  or  charity,  should 
be  steadily  repressed  in  their  endeavors  to  kindle  every 
little  spark  of  error  and  misconduct  into  a  flame,  that  may 
involve  the  whole  church  in  deadly  controversy. 

But  the  effect  of  the  total  neglect  of  church  discipline 
would  be  the  inevitable  corruption  of  the  church,  as  in  the 
ancient  church  of  Corinth ;  it  would  end  in  weakness  and 
spiritual  decline,  and  often  in  open  and  unchecked  immo- 
rality. 

(G.)  In  regard  to  the  pastor's  own  official  relations  to  the 
church,  an  old  writer  says  they  are  "  to  feed  the  sheep  ; 
guide  and  keep  them ;  draw  them  to  him ;  discern  their 
diseases ;  cure  them  by  appropriate  medicine ;  give  warn- 
iuir ;  watch  over  and  defend  the  flock."  In  the  matter  of 
discipline,  of  which  we  have  just  spoken,  in  the  words  of  an 
ancient  Congregational  rule,  "he  is  to  lead  and  go  before 
the  church."  ^  The  pastor  is  the  appointed  overseer  of  the 
church  in  all  its  aflfairs,  whether  temporal  or  spiritual;  he 
is  the  moderator  of  the  church's  meetings,  the  executive 
ai^ent  of  its  will,  the  leader  in  its  worship,  the  dispenser  of 
its  ordinances  and  sacraments,  and  its  guide  in  all  religious 
duties. 

As  to  the  pastor's  strictly  oflicial  authority,  of  which  we 
have  before  spoken,  all  the  actual  power,  according  to  the 
Congregational  idea,  lies  in  the  church  itself,  or  with  the 
united  brethren  of  the  church ;  the  pastor,  however,  is  the 

•  Cambridge  Platform. 


§  47.   OVERSIGHT  OF  THE  CHURCH.         599 

chief  instrument  or  agent  of  executing  and  canying  out 
the  church's  authority.  He  is  the  church's  executive  officer. 
Nevertheless  he  is  a  minister,  not  a  monarch.  His  voice 
may  have  a  greater  power  than  that  of  another  member,  but 
his  vote  and  his  ecclesiastical  action  has  not  a  whit  more. 
In  a  business  meeting,  he  may,  as  the  church's  pastor,  give 
advice,  if  he  thinks  proper;  for  he  is  the  divinely  appointed 
counsellor  and  guide  of  a  church,  and  has  therefore  a  cer- 
tain power  of  administration,  which  is  necessary,  reason- 
able, and  scriptural. 

2.    Christian  nurture. 

(1.)  The  church  has  a  profound  responsibility  in  regard  to 
its  children,  and  no  truth  is  more  familiar  than  that  the 
hope  of  the  church  is  in  its  children  and  youth.  That 
church  has  prescience  and  true  love,  that  never  for  a 
moment  loses  sight  of  the  children  born  in  its  borders,  and 
above  all,  of  the  children  of  believers.  It  is  the  duty  of  the 
church  to  see  that  these  children  are  trained  up  "  in  the  nur- 
ture and  admonition  of  the  Lord."  They  are  to  be  regarded 
as  those  already  pledged  to  Christ,  and  who,  through  the 
faithfulness  of  believing  parents,  and  of  the  church,  will 
themselves  become  true  disciples.  Those  children  should 
grow  up  as  naturally  into  the  church  and  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  as  tenderly  cared-for  plants  in  a  garden.  This 
faith  is  rooted  in  nature,  Scripture,  and  grace.  But  even 
little  children  have  need  of  regeneration,  and  may  be  the 
true  subjects  of  regeneration,  or  we  limit  the  power  of 
the  renewing  Spirit.  The  child  is  to  be  treated  as  if  he 
bad  a  soul  to  save,  and  is  not  to  be  left  to  grow  up  in  sin 
until  he  is  sinful  enough  to  need  salvation ;  he  is  to  be 
brought  into  communion  with  the  spiritual  influences  of 
Christ's  kingdom ;  he  is  to  be  nourished  in  Christ's  house- 
hold ;  he  is  to  be  put  into  the  very  arms  of  Jesus,  who 
said,  ^'Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  and  forbid 
them  not."     A  study  of  the  true  force  of  that  remarkable 


coo  PASTORAL   OFFICE. 

expression  fiuOriieicrnis  (Matt.  28  :  19)  will  greatly  enlarge 
our  hope  and  zeal  as  pastors ;  for  the  pastor,  above  all, 
should  not  neglect  these  young  "disciples,"  who  are  the 
seed  of  the  future  church,  and  of  his  own  particular  church. 
The  primitive  church  had  certainly  a  more  magnanimous 
and  Christ-like  view  of  its  relations  to  little  children  and  to 
households,  than  we  at  this  day  are  accustomed  to  hold. 

Of  course  Christian  parents  are  the  divinely  appointed 
agents  of  the  church,  to  teach  their  children  the  things  of 
God,  and  to  rear  them  for  Christ  and  his  service  ;  they  are 
to  impart  to  their  children  Christian  instruction,  "  which  is 
of  the  Lord,  deriving  a  quality  and  power  from  him,  and 
communicating  the  same.  Being  instituted  by  him,  it  will 
of  necessity  have  a  method  and  a  character  peculiar  to  itself, 
'or  rather  to  him.  It  will  be  the  Lord's  way  of  education, 
having  aims  appropriate  to  him,  and  if  realized  in  its  full 
extent,  terminating  in  results  impossible  to  be  reached  by 
any  merely  human  method."  ^ 

Parents  are,  in  some  sense,  the  parents  of  their  children's 
souls.  There  is  a  connection  of  moral  character,  which 
produces  results  beautiful  or  terrible.  What  an  argument 
has  the  pastor  to  urge  parents  to  lead  a  godly  life,  and  to 
cultivate  family  piety,  whereby  the  house  becomes  "the 
church  of  childhood,  the  table  and  hearth  a  holy  rite,  and 
life  an  element  of  saving  power."  We  speak  here  with 
earnestness,  as  of  a  matter  of  vital  moment,  that  our  impres- 
sion is,  that  (with  marked  exceptions)  there  is  a  profound 
want  on  the  part  of  believing  parents  in  our  Congregational 
churches  (and  perhaps  this  is  not  peculiar  to  our  own  com- 
munion) in  instructing  their  children  in  Christian  truth  and 
piety,  leading  them  by  the  hand  to  Christ,  teaching  them 
with  the  purpose,  clearness,  care,  and  heart  they  teach  in 
matters  pertaining  to  this  world.  Children  are  neglected 
religiously.     This  ought  not  so  to  be.     It  shows  a  deplor- 

'  Dr.  Bushnell. 


§  47.   OVERSIGHT  OF  THE  CHURCH.         601 

able  want  of  faith.  It  must  act  disastrously  on  the  interests 
of  the  church  of  Christ. 

But  the  church  itself,  and  the  pastor  as  its  chief  agent, 
have  also  their  duty  to  perform  toward  the  children.  This 
duty  of  the  church  in  the  training  of  its  children  and  youth 
is  commonly  treated  under  the  head  of  catachetics. 

( 2.  )  Catachetics  (from  xazijxl'Cuj,  to  sound ;  to  utter 
sound ;  to  teach  by  the  voice ;  oral  instruction)  is  the 
familiar  teaching  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  divine 
truth  drawn  from  the  word  of  God.  "Religious  instruction 
renews  continually  the  foundation  of  the  church,  and  is  the 
most  real  part  of  that  tradition  by  which  Christianity,  not 
only  as  a  doctrine,  but  also  as  a  life,  perpetuates  itself  from 
ao^e  to  asfe.  Catechizing  is  useful  to  those  who  are  its 
immediate  objects ;  it  is  useful  to  the  parish ;  it  is  useful  to 
the  pastor  himself,  who  by  the  duty  of  adapting  religion  to 
the  apprehension  of  children,  is  unconsciously  carried  back 
to  simplicity  and  the  true  names  of  things.  On  all  these 
accounts  it  deserves  earnest  attention,  which  it  also  demands 
by  its  difficulty,  not  the  same  for  all  pastors,  but  always 
great."  1  Vinet  gives  also  his  opinion  in  favor  of  direct 
instruction  from  the  Bible,  without  catechism  or  manual. 
He  says,  "Where  ought  a  child  to  find  his  religion?  All 
that  he  can  find  himself  he  must  find,  but  that  is  little ;  all 
the  rest  is  in  the  Bible.  It  is  the  Bible  that  must  teach  him. 
Catechizing  presupposes  the  Bible,  which  it  does  but  digest 
and  systematize.  It  is  by  their  mutually  interlacing  one 
another  that  the  ideas  of  the  Bible  live,  as  do  the  fibres  of  a 
living  body  ;  to  separate  them  is  to  destroy  life."^ 

The  modern  system  of  Sunday  schools,  and  their  rela- 
tions to  the  church,  is  one  of  exceeding  interest  to  the 
pastor,  who  should  firmly  hold  the  theory  that  the  Sunday 
school  belongs  to  the  essential  orgaiiization  and  working 
eystem  of  the  church ;  that  it  should  not  maintain  an  inde- 

»  Vinet,  Pastoral  Theology,  p.  229.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  229. 

51 


602  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

pendent  existence  ;  that  it  should  be  established  or  adopted 
by  the  church  as  its  own  instrumentality  ;  that  it  should  be 
ordered,  regulated,  and  maintained  b}^  the  church  through 
its  pastor.     "  It  is  part  of  his  ministry."  ^ 

3.   The  church's  benevolent  activity/. 

The  ideal  of  a  Christian  church  is  one  where  the  work- 
ing capacity  of  every  member,  the  peculiar  talent  of  every 
member,  is  developed  from  a  living  principle  of  faith,  in 
unity  with  the  general  plan  of  God  in  the  establishment  of 
the  church,  or  the  common  work  which  the  church  has  to  do. 

That  idea  may  be  carried  out  by  a  concert  of  action,  and 
a  carefully  organized  plan  of  action,  in  order  to  enable  every 
member  to  use  his  peculiar  gift,  whatever  it  may  be,  for 
the  service  of  the  whole  ;  so  that  there  may  be  occupation 
for  the  capacity  of  every  one  for  good,  in  some  more  gene- 
ral system  of  operations.  "  All  working,  and  always  work- 
ing," was  Wesley's  motto.  Not  the  most  ignorant,  obscure, 
or  weak,  should  be  permitted  to  remain  altogether  unem- 
ployed ;  and  evidently  the  tendency  of  the  Christian  spirit 
of  the  age  is,  and  will  be  more  and  more  in  the  future, 
to  make  every  nominal  member  of  the  church  a  living, 
preaching,  working,  real  member.  He  is  the  best  pastor 
who  organizes  and  draws  out  the  greatest  working  capa- 
city of  his  church  in  harmonious  action ;  while  at  the 
same  time  he  guards  against  an  unwise  and  useless  waste  of 
energy,  economizes  power,  prevents  profitless  repetition  of 
labor,  and  guides  effort  in  the  best  channels.  He  is  called 
upon  to  impel  and  regulate  the  benevolent  activity  of  his 
church,  especially  in  three  directions,  almsgiving,  home 
evangelization,  and  missionary  enterprise. 

(1.)  Almsgiving,  or  the  giving  of  money  for  purely 
charitable  purposes.  The  pastor  has  a  great  work  to  do 
to  raise  the  benevolent  spirit  of  the  church  to  something 

1  Dr.  Tyng. 


§  47.       OVERSIGHT   OF   THE   CHURCH.,  603 

like  the  New  Testament  standard.  It  is  now,  notwith- 
standing the  greatly  increased  benevolence  of  the  church, 
almost  infinitely  below  the  standard  and  spirit  of  the  gos- 
pel. The  pastor  should  earnestly  preach  the  truth  that 
^^ Christ  is  all,  and  in  all;"  that  all  one  has,  as  well  as  all 
one  is,  is  Christ's  ;  not  a  tenth  of  one's  property,  which  was 
the  old  Hebrew  rule,  but  the  whole  of  it,  which  is  the 
Christian  rule.  In  other  words,  no  one  has  an  exclusive 
property  right  in  anything  that  he  possesses ;  it  is  but  a 
relative  possession  ;  the  claims  of  God  and  of  one's  fellow- 
men  are  always  to  be  considered  in  relation  to  his  risrhts  of 
ownership.  If  God,  indeed,  should  clearly  call  for  all  that 
a  man  has,  he  should  be  ready  to  surrender  it.  He  may 
not  be  called  upon  to  give  more  than  a  tenth  part  of  his 
income  for  strictly  charitable  purposes,  nor  even  that, 
under  some  circumstances ;  but  he  should  ever  gladly  act 
upon  the  New  Testament  principle,  to  give  "as  God  hath 
prospered  him."  There  should  be  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice 
in  this,  as  in  all  things  that  pertain  to  the  Christian  life. 
This  is  a  great  and  vital  subject,  deeply  afiecting  the  interests 
of  humanity,  and  of  the  church ;  and  the  pastor  should  so 
preach,  and  as  far  as  he  can,  practise,  upon  the  Christian 
law  of  giving,  that  his  people  shall  be  brought  to  approxi- 
mate to  the  true  standard.  This  will  be  for  their  own  his^h- 
est  good  and  happiness.  He  is  also  to  encourage  good  men 
to  gain  money  with  a  positive  Christian  aim,  in  order  to  do 
good,  to  furnish  the  means  of  carrying  on  Christian  works 
of  greater  than  ordinary  dimensions,  requiring  greater  re- 
sources. He  is  to  systematize  the  church's  benevolence,  to 
regulate  the  whole  matter  upon  some  comprehensive  work- 
ing plan  in  which  room  is  still  left  for  spontaneous  charity, 
so  that  giving  shall  bo  made  a  part  of  religion,  of  praise. 
Each  church  should  have  its  own  system  of  missions,  mis- 
sion schools,  houses  for  the  poor,  for  the  aged,  for  the 
infirm,  as  well  as  its  system  of  aiding  more  general  objects ; 
for  there  is  more  real  enthusiasm  in  what  is  our  own  thau 


604  .  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

in  what  is  of  general  interest,  even  if  genninely  Christian. 
AVe  shall  do  %vell  to  copy  the  sagacity  of  our  Episcopalian 
brethren  in  this  respect,  who  have  rightly  divined  one 
source  of  power  and  benevolent  energy  to  lie  in  the  con- 
centration of  interest  upon  definite  objects,  those  that  are 
well  recognized  as  denoting  the  vinej'ard  which  is  to  be 
faithfully  cultivated  by  a  particular  church. 

There  has  been,  doubtless,  in  the  past,  with  much  that  is 
genuine  and  liberal,  something  of  unreasoning  and  unintel- 
ligent benevolence  in  our  churches,  a  kind  of  superstitious 
giving  without  the  giving  of  the  man  himself  with  it ;  as  if 
mere  giving  in  itself  benefited  the  soul ;  so  that  Edward 
Irving  truly  said  that  "money  is  the  universal  corruption, 
when  we  use  it  for  discharging  obligations  contracted  by 
spiritual  or  moral  services." 

(2.)  Home  evangelization.  It  is  a  difiicult  yet  great 
achievement,  to  induce  church  members  to  enter  upon  per- 
sonal work  for  the  cause  of  religion  and  humanity,  to  labor 
to  elevate  the  condition  even  of  those  lying  at  their  door, 
of  the  destitute,  ignorant,  unevangelized  classes  in  our  own 
towns  and  cities.  The  consecration  needed  for  this  work 
is  to  be  set  forth  ;  and  the  actual  wants  of  the  neighborhood 
in  which  a  church  is  placed,  are  to  be  exhibited  with  truth 
and  vivid  particularity.  These  claims  of  the  poor  should  be 
laid  on  the  conscience  of  church  members,  and  the  law  of 
love  to  our  neighbor  should  be  pressed  home.  "  Whoso 
liath  this  world's  good,  and  seetJi  his  brother  have  need,  and 
shutteth  up  Ids  hoivels  of  compassion  from  him,  hoiv  dwelleth 
the  love  of  God  in  him?"  The  responsibility  should  be 
rolled  upon  Christians.  The  great  encouragements  of  such 
a  work,  the  motives  prudential  and  religious,  motives  as 
palpable  as  those  for  draining  a  poisonous  marsh  and  turning 
it  into  good  farming  soil,  —  should  be  presented  ;  but,  above 
all,  the  pastor  himself,  with  such  devoted  church  members  as 
he  can  influence  to  join  him,  should  enter  courageously  into 
this  work,  as  Dr.  Chalmers  did,  with  his  few  helpers,  when 


§  47.      OVEESIGHT   OF   THE   CHURCH. 


005 


he  undertook  the  care,  temporal  and  spiritual,  ot  ten  thou- 
sand poor  of  the  eity  of  Ghisgow.     The  main  pnnciple  of 
Dr    Chalmers  was,  that  a  Christian  church  is  responsible 
for  the  physical,  social,  and  moral,  as  well  as  spiritual  con- 
dition   of   all  who  are  within  its   parish  limits  not  other- 
wise Jared  for.     It  should  provide  for  the  temporal  necessi- 
ties of  its  poor,  not  leaving  them  to  the  cold  charities  of  the 
civil  authority,  and  should  see  that  they  are  properly  fed, 
clothed,  and  educated.     He  thought  that  the  debased  con- 
dition of  the  poor  of  large  Christian  cities  was  mamly  owmg 
to  the  apathy  and   unfaithfulness  of  the   churches  in  doing 
their  duty  to  the  people  and  communities  among  whom  they 

were  placed.^ 

(3  )    Missionary  enterprise.      It    is    the    work    of    the 
church  to  give  the  gospel,  of  which  it  is  put  in  charge,  to 
men,  to  convert  and  Christianize  the  world.     Its  duty  to  do 
this 'is  seen  chiefly  from  three  reasons:     (1.)  The  univer 
sality  of  the  gospel,  which  fits  it  to  meet  the  religious  wants 
of  all  men  and  the  world, -its  adaptation  to  become  a  uni- 
versal religion  ;   (2.)  The  fact  that  the  gospel  contains  the 
vital  principle  of  spiritual  restoration,  in  fact,  of  religion, 
or  rebinding  to  God,  -  which  art,  commerce,  education,  let- 
ters, philosophy,  do  not  contain  ;   (3.)  Th-lirect  command 
of  Christ  to  his  disciples  (Mark  16  :  15  ;  Matt.  28  :  19). 

"The  spirit  of  missions  is  the  divine  energy  of  the  gos- 
pel "  In  one  sense,  missions  are  the  oflfspring  of  the  church, 
and  in  another  sense,  they  are  the  church  itself  in  action, 
moving  to  take  possession  of  the  world.  The  Christian 
church,  in  its  inception  and  history,  is  a  missionary  body  tor 
the  world's  conversion  ;  and  it  cannot  cease  to  promote  mis- 
sions while  any  part  of  the  world  remains  without  the  true 

knowledge  of  God.  ,      •,.  ^  • 

The  theory  of  Christian  missions  cannot  be  discussed  in 
so  short  a  space  ;  but  it  may  be  remarked  that  the  primitive 

'  Hanna's  Life  of  Chalmers,  vol.  ii.  chapters  vi.,  x.,  xi. 
51* 


606  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

method  of  missionary  operations  is  contained  in  Acts  5  :  42, 
to  "  teach  and  preach  Jesus"  with  fervor  and  faith,  as  did 
the  apostles,  the  first  missionaries,  has  been  the  central 
agency  in  the  missionary  work  of  all  times  and  countries. 
Here  is  the  main  reliance  ;  here  is  contained  the  seed  of 
future  piety,  fiiith,  industry,  freedom,  progress,  heaven. 
Christ  said,  "^^ All  power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  in 
ea,rth;  go  ye,  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them 
in  the  naine  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  atid  of  the  Holy 
Ghost:  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  ivhatsoever  I  have 
commanded  you:  and  lo,  I  am  ivith  you  alicay,  even  to  the 
end  of  the  ivorld."  The  great-hearted  John  Evangelist 
Gossner  wrote  to  his  missionary  teachers  among  the  moun- 
tainous districts  of  India,  "Believe,  hope,  love  1  The  Lord 
is  coming,  and  to  every  one  he  will  say.  Where  hast  thou 
left  the  souls  of  those  heathen?  Swiftly  seek  these  souls, 
and  enter  not  without  them  into  the  presence  of  the  Lord." 
Every  agency  which  is  allied  with,  and  aids,  the  preaching 
of  Christ,  and  confirms,  conserves,  and  hands  down  to  the 
coming  generations  the  results  of  missionary  la])ors,  such  as 
schools,  books,  and  translations  in  native  tongues,  and  all 
the  inventions  and  appliances  of  a  Christian  civilization,  all 
that  helps  to  elevate  the  outward  material  condition  of 
heathen  nations,  all  that  goes  to  build  up  a  permanent  and 
organized  Christian  society,  —  is  really  included  in  the  idea 
and  practical  operation  of  Christian  missions.  Christ  may 
be  preached  in  the  religious  instruction  given  in  mis- 
sion schools ;  but  the  old  order  should  not  be  essentially 
reversed ;  Christianity  carries  in  its  ample  bosom  the  arts 
of  life,  but  the  arts  of  life  do  not  carry  Christianity  with 
them,  nor  do  they  bring  men  to  God.  To  raise  the  tone 
of  public  life  and  society  in  heathendom  is  one  of  the  im- 
mediate fruits  of  missions,  and  we  may  say  that  the  produc- 
tion of  a  Christian  civilization  is  the  best  proof  of  the 
success  of  Christian  missions  ;  but  that  is  not  the  direct  aim 
of  Christian  missions,  which  is  a  spiritual  work  for  the  con- 


§  47.   OVEESIGHT  OF  THE  CHURCH.         607 

version  of  the  heathen  to  Christ.  Of  course  the  churches 
at  home  must  do  this  work,  must  furnish  means  and  men, 
prayer  and  faith. 

The  first  enthusiasm  of  missions  has  passed  away.  The 
work  is  one  of  vast  magnitude.  Much  more  has  been  accom- 
plished than  appears,  but  the  fruits  seem  small.  Greater 
energy,  wisdom,  thought,  combined  effort,  inspiration, 
above  nW,  faith,  must  be  put  into  the  work;  for,  to  pene- 
trate the  stony  surface  of  ancient  false  religions  which  are 
centuries  older  than  historical  Christianity,  and  to  sow  the 
seed  of  divine  truth  so  that  it  shall  spring  up  and  cover 
these  vast  moral  wastes  with  new  verdure  and  life,  requires 
an  apostolic  trust  in  the  living  forces  of  the  gospel.  The 
churches  have  not  yet  shown  this  primitive  faith. 

The  condition  of  the  heathen  world  is  a  subject  which  has 
oppressed  the  best  and  most  hopeful  minds.  John  Foster's 
faith  and  imagination  were  not  of  a  hopeful  character,  but 
he  was  a  true  Christian ;  and  while  he  thought  that  the 
problem  of  moral  evil,  as  presented  in  the  stupendous  form 
of  heathenism,  could  not  be  solved  by  reason,  but  must 
be  left  unsolved  in  simple  faith,  jqI  he  believed  that  Chris- 
tians, and  the  Christian  church,  should  strive  to  draw  from 
it  all  possible  lessons  of  discipline,  self-denial,  patience, 
love,  and  heroic  faith ;  and,  in  the  midst  of  his  painful 
mental  darkness  on  the  subject,  he  strenuously  advocated 
the  cause  of  Christian  missions,  and  thought  that  our  ao:e  of 
the  church  was  the  one  destined  to  open  the  way,  to  begin 
in  earnest  the  work,  which  future  times  might  more  rapidly 
complete. 

The  New  Testament  looks  forward,  not  only  to  the  per- 
fect freedom  of  the  single  soul,  but  of  the  race,  from  the 
power  of  sin  and  evil ;  and  there  is  not  only  this  great  hope 
of  the  emancipation  of  humanity  to  animate  us,  but  also  a 
stimulating  fear  to  impel  us,  in  regard  to  the  actual  state  of 
the  heathen  world  as  it  is  represented  to  us  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, in  the  facts  of  history,  and  of  nature  ;  as  Foster  says, 


608  PASTORAL    OFFICE. 

"Christians  should  be  kept  in  au  habitual  and  alarming 
sense  of  the  fact "  of  the  terribly  sunken  spiritual  condition 
of  a  largo  portion  of  the  world. 

God  has  given  grounds  of  hope  to  encourage  us  to  labor 
for  the  heathen,  inasmuch  as  his  living  Spirit  is  present  in 
the  hearts  of  all  his  creatures ;  and  in  the  fact  that  the 
gospel  has  power  to  reach  that  religious  capacity,  that  sense 
of  God,  which,  however  deadened  and  obscured,  still  slum- 
bers in  every  human  soul,  and  which,  even  in  the  heathen 
mind,  struggles  tortuously  to  reach  the  source  whence  it 
came.  There  is  something  of  perverted  common  truth,  of 
the  blind  working  of  the  religious  principle,  in  many  of  the 
heathen  religions  themselves,  to  which  the  gospel  can,  at 
some  time,  we  believe,  strongly  and  successfully  appeal. 
In  the  deep-rooted  Confucian  idea  of  the  paternal  relation 
and  government,  interwoven  in  all  the  life,  worship,  and 
civilization  of  China,  the  Christian  belief  in  a  heavenly 
Father  finds  a  faint  affinity  and  preparation ;  in  the  Indian 
conception  of  absorption  into  Buddha,  the  profound  truth 
of  man's  being  made  a  partaker  of  the  divine  nature  through 
the  incarnation  and  sufferings  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  shadowed 
forth ;  in  the  Islamic  faith  in  one  God  who  is  a  Spirit,  the 
Christian  truth  of  the  unity  and  spirituality  of  the  divine 
nature  awakens  a  certain  response.  Even  the  ante-Christian 
pantheism  of  the  older  pagan  religions,  which  still  lingers  in 
them,  is  different  from  that,  and  has  more  sincerity  in  it,  and 
more  of  the  memory  of  a  lost  monotheism,  than  the  delib- 
erate anti-Christian  pantheism  of  the  modern  naturalistic 
philosophy. 

We  are  disposed  to  find  encouragement  in  this,  as  af- 
fording some  little  ground  for  the  gospel  to  stand  upon  in 
those  unchristianized  lands,  and  as  proving  that  God  does 
not  leave  himself  without  a  witness  among  any  people. 
iVud  we  see,  too,  that  where  the  gospel  goes,  it  has  fresh 
power,  and  produces  fruits  of  wondrous  beauty.  But  those 
who  have  the  gospel  must  still,  as  of  old,  send  it  to  those 


§  47.   OVERSIGHT  OF  THE  CHURCH.         609 

who  have  it  not.  It  depends  greatly  upon  the  pastors^  if 
they  themselves  have  the  evangelic  spirit,  whether  the 
churches  are  aroused  to  zeal,  and  are  filled  with  activity  in 
this  work,  which  looks  beyond  the  horizon  of  the  present, 
which  is  entirely  unselfish  in  its  spirit,  and  whose  principle 
of  success  is  wrapped  up  in  the  pregnant  words,  ^"^ According 
to  your  faith  he  it  unto  youl^^ 

Never  was  it  so  true  as  now  that  ^Hlie  field  is  the  ivorld." 
Never  was  the  whole  world  so  hopefully  open  to  a  true  and 
catholic  gospel.  Never  have  old  errors  and  false  religions 
that  have  bound  this  groaning  and  travailing  earth,  shown 
such  evident  signs  of  weakness  and  readiness  to  vanish 
away.  Never  was  it  so  great  a  sin  of  unbelief  for  the 
church  and  disciples  of  Christ,  to  be  insensible  to  the  debt 
of  love  they  owe  their  fellow-men.  The  unity  of  God  in- 
volves the  unity  of  the  human  race.  The  divine  law  of  love 
to  our  neighbor  has  taken  on  world-wide  proportions,  that 
cannot  be  met  by  the  best  efibrts  of  human  philanthropy, 
or  philosophy,  however  noble ;  for  it  seeks  to  free,  and  to 
transform  with  a  divine  life,  that  which  is  immortal  in 
humanity ;  it  rises  above  every  distinction  of  name  and 
nation,  and  aims  at  bringing  all  men  whom  Christ  loved, 
into  one  true  brotherhood  of  man,  and  under  one  blessed 
fatherhood  of  God. 


INDEX. 


Action,  in  the  orator,  253. 

.Esthetics,  the  principles  of,  in  preaching,  258. 

Affliction,  pastoral  care  of  those  in,  660. 

Alexander,  Dr.  J.  W.,  quoted,  69,  73,  331. 

Alsmsgiving,  602. 

Ambassador,  of  God,  work  and  title  of  the  ministry,  1,  374. 

Ambrose,  of  Milan,  his  preaching,  39;  his  call  to  the  ministry,  402. 

America,  preaching  in,  51. 

Amusements,  469. 

Analogy,  argument  from,  223. 

Angel,  title  of  the  ministry,  374. 

Antithesis,  use  of  the,  323. 

Apollos,  232. 

Apostles,  their  preaching,  27;  the  first  Christian  ministers,  349;  the  ofl^e 

of  the,  350;  succession  of  the,  354;  type  of  Christian  pastors,  356. 
Applause,  the  love  of,  415. 
Application,  of  sermon,  181. 
Architecture,  ecclesiastical,  501. 
Aristotle,  his  idea  of  rhetoric,  192. 
Art,  its  true  place,  501. 
Ascham,  Roger,  rule  of,  244. 

Athanasius,  his  rebuke  of  preachers  of  his  time,  39. 
Augustine,  his  view  of  the  ministry,  3 ;  his  preaching,  38 ;  number  of  his 

sermons  extant,  212;  his  adaptation,  244;  his  imagination,  265;  on  the 

office  of  bishop,  371. 

Barrow,  Dr.  Isaac,  his  preaching,  49. 

Basil,  39. 

Bautain,  on  extemporaneous  speaking,  82. 

Baxter,  Richard,  48 ;  quoted,  186 ;  on  pastoral  duties,  635. 

Beecher,  Rev.  H.  W.,  quoted,  288,  289. 

Beecher,  Dr.  Lyman,  55,  265 ;  his  energy  of  style,  332. 

Benevolence  of  the  church,  603. 

(611) 


G12  INDEX. 

Bengcl,  on  the  pastoral  work,  538.  , 

Bernard,  St.,  42. 

Bible,  the  English,  an  aid  to  style,  243 ;  reading  of  the,  251 ;  source  of  the 
preacher's  invention,  273;  aid  to  devotion,  431. 

Bishop,  office  of,  371. 

Blair,  Dr.,  50. 

Boileau,  quoted,  178. 

Bossuet,  on  Calvin,  46 ;  his  preaching,  47. 

Brougham,  Lord,  his  letter  to  Zachary  Macaulay,  310. 

Bucer,  44. 

Banyan,  John,  example  of  a  modern  prophet,  358. 

Burial,  service  of,  529. 

Burnet,  Bishop,  his  view  of  a  call  to  the  ministry,  392,  397. 

Bushnell,  Dr.,  on  preaching,  200;  his  use  of  language,  231;  on  family  devo- 
tion, 462. 

Butler,  Bishop,  on  precise  thinking,  315;  on  active  and  passive  impressions, 
414. 

Call,  divine,  to  the  ministry,  390;  necessity  of,  390;  nature  of,  394;  signs 

of  398, 
Calvin,  his  preaching,  46. 
Catechetics,  601. 
Cecil,  50. 
Chalmers,  Dr.,  preacher  of   written   sermons,   74;   his   imagination,   267; 

preacher  of  practical  morality,  285;    the  new  spiritual  power  in   his 

ministry,  424 ;  his  method  of  study,  447 ;  simplicity  of  his  character, 

473 ;  example  as  a  pastor,  537 ;  his  eiforts  for  the  poorer  classes,  604. 
Channing,  Dr.,  as  a  reformer,  289. 
Charnock,  48,  49. 
Chaucer,  the  study  of,  237. 
Cheke,  Sir  John,  on  foreign  idioms,  306. 
Christ,  as  a  preacher,  17;  moral  beauty  of  his  preaching,  260;  the  great 

theme  of  preaching,  279,  284 ;  model  of  the  pastor,  385 ;  preaching  of, 

to  the  sick,  555 ;  source  of  spiritual  life,  572 ;  unbelief  in  the  mediation 

of,  577. 
Chrysostom,  his  humility,  3;  his  preaching,  35;  his  idea  of  the  eloquence  of 

preaching,  200 ;  his  imagination,  265. 
Church,  pastoral  oversight  of  the,  591 ;  membership  of  the,  591 ;  discipline 

of  the,  595 ;  benevolent  activity  of  the,  602. 
Cicero,  commends  an  ornate  introduction,   126;  his   idea  of  rhetoric,  194; 

commends  bold  action,  254;  quoted,  270,  292;    on  invention,  291;  on 

writing  as  an  aid  to  speaking,  292. 
Claude,  Jean,  46,  47. 
Climax,  use  of  the,  324. 
Coleridge,  quoted,  25 ;  definition  of  reason,  213 ;  definition  of  imagination, 

264. 


INDEX.  613 

Conclusion  of  a  sermon,   178;  importance  of  a  good,  178;  parts  of  the,  180. 
Conversation,  cultivation  of  the  power  of,   471 ;  Fenelon's,  472 ;   religious, 

550. 
Conversion,  difference  in  the  circumstances  of,  683. 
Convert,  the  young,  treatment  of  the,  587. 
Cotton,  John,  52,  496. 
Covetousness,  sin  of,  474. 
Culture,  intellectual,  435 ;  moral,  451. 

Davenport,  John,  15,  52;  Davies,  Samuel,  55. 

Day,  Professor  H.  N.,  quoted,  131;  on  the  principle  of  division,  154,  156, 
167;  on  the  persuasive  sermon,  182;  definition  of  eloquence,  196;  on 
delivery,  245;  classification  of  the  objective  qualities  of  style,  304. 

Delivery,  a  legitimate  part  of  rhetoric,  245 ;  of  a  public  discourse,  247. 

De  Tocqueville,  liis  view  of  public  morahty,  287 ;  on  the  moral  influence  of 
woman,  460. 

Development,  of  a  sermon,  160;  expository,  161;  illustrative,  164;  argu- 
mentative,. 165 ;  persuasive,  170;  qualities  of  the,  174. 

Dignity,  ministerial,  468. 

Divisions  of  a  sermon,  151 ;  definition  of,  153 ;  utility  of,  153 ;  number  of, 
155;  sources  and  qualities  of,  155;  composition  of,  158;  order  and 
arrangement  of,  159;  time  and  place  of  announcing,  160. 

Doctrine,  Christian,  the  staple  of  preaching,  281. 

Doddridge,  Dr.,  on  the  pastoral  office,  536. 

Donne,  Dr.,  as  a  preacher,  48,  49. 

Doubt,  scientific,  treatment  of,  566. 

Du  Bosc,  Pierre,  46. 

Dwight,  Dr.,  52. 

Dying,  pastoral  visitation  of  the,  557 ;  prayer  with  the,  558. 

Earnestness,  the  soul  of  eloquence,  332. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  his  preaching,  52;  his  imagination,  265 ;  his  method  of 

study,  444. 
Edwards,  the  younger,  52. 
Election,  treatment  of  the  doctrine  of,  574. 

Elegance  of  style,  333 ;  its  sources,  333 ;  caution  in  regard  to,  836. 
Eliot,  the  American  apostle,  52. 
Eloquence,  definition  of,  196 ;  a  moral  quality,  202. 
Emmons,  Dr.,  the  introductions  of  his  sermons,  119;  quoted,  146;  used  the 

ratio  obliqna,  222 ;  a  reader  of  Shakspeare,  239 ;  his  method  of  study, 

445. 
Emphasis,  252. 
Energy,  of  style,  319. 
England,  preaching  in,  47. 
Erasmus,  quoted,  411. 
Euphony,  293. 

52 


614  INDEX. 

Eusebius,  quotation  from,  3G5. 

Evangelist,  office  of,  in  the  church,  362;  modem  idea  of,  365. 

Evangelization,  the  work  of,  G03. 

Evidences,  the  Christian,  preaching  upon,  283. 

Experience,  Christian,  as  a  subject  for  preaching,  290. 

Extempore  preaching,  what  it  is,  81 ;  F.  B.  Zincke's  plan  of,  84. 

Eaith,  deepest  source  of  the  preacher's  eloquence,  200,  424 ;   a  minister's 

need  of,  540 ;  the  act  that  saves,  583. 
Faucheur,  Michel  C,  introduction  of  a  sermon  by,  129. 
Fenelon,  as  a  preacher,  47;  recommends  the  meditative  discourse,  145;  on 

religious  meditation,  430;  manners  of,  467;  his  conversation,  471. 
Figures,  of  speech,   to  increase  perspicuity,  317;  to  increase  energy,  324; 

entire  absence  of,  a  defect  in  the  preacher's  style,   327 ;  qualities  of 

true,  328. 
Finney,  Dr.,  on  the  conduct  of  a  prayer  meeting,  525. 
Fitch,  Dr.  E.  T.,  his  preference  of  argumentative  discourses,  91,  166;  his 

use  of  the  moral-descriptive  style,  92 ;  on  the  testimony  of  Scripture, 

169 ;  on  the  use  of  the  persuasive  argument,  183 ;  on  the  application  of 

a  sermon,  184. 
Flavel,  48. 

Foster,  John,  51,  606. 

France,  preaching  in,  45  ;  Protestant  pulpit  of,  46. 
Fuller,  Thomas,  quoted,  48,  180,  455. 

Gentleness,  469. 

Germany,  preaching  in,  45.  ■» 

Gilpin,  Bernard,  48. 
Goethe,  quoted,  269,  331. 
Gospel,  attractions  of  the,  586. 

Gossner,  John  Evangelist,  quoted,  78 ;  as  a  man  of  prayer,  434 ;  to  mission- 
aries in  India,  605. 
Gould,  Edward,  on  pulpit  elocution,  249. 
Governors,  office  in  the  church,  362. 
Grammar,  study  of  the  principles  of,  297. 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  39  ;  quoted,  423,  534. 
Gravity,  454. 

Ilagenbach,  Dr.,  quoted,  24,  78,  82,  93,  106. 

Hall,  Rev.  Newman,  on  preaching,  58. 

Hall,  Robert,  50;  his  imagination,  265;  on  the  ministry,  419. 

Hamann,  John  George,  quoted,  449. 

Hamilton,  Sir  William,  on  the  connection  of  philosophy  and  theology,  9. 

Harmony,  295. 

Hase,  Dr.,  on  the  office  of  bishop,  372. 

Heathen,  condition  of  the,  606 ;  religions  of  the,  607. 

Hebrew,  study  of,  442. 


INDEX.  615 

Herbert,  George,  on  taking  holy  orders,  386 ;  on  a  particularizing  method, 

538 ;  on  preparation  for  the  ministry,  641. 
Herder,  his  idea  of  the  continuance  of  the  ministry,  347. 
Hoadly,  Bishop,  on  the  apostolic  succession,  354. 
Hobbes,  on  what  commends  the  speaker,  127. 
Holy  Spirit,  as  related  to  the  truth  in  preaching,  221. 
Homiletics,  definition  of,  23. 
Hooker,  Richard,  as  a  preacher,  48. 
Hooper,  Bishop,  44 ;  his  house,  464. 
Hopkins,  Dr.  Samuel,  52 ;  his  method  of  study,  445. 
Hospitality,  ministerial,  462. 
Howe,  John,  48 ;  his  imagination,  265. 
Hume,  his  argument  on  miracles,  221. 
Huss,  John,  42. 
Hymnology,  512. 

Imagination,   Coleridge's   definition  of,   264;    distinguishing  mark  of  great 

preachers,  265 ;  too  much  curbed,  266 ;  too  much  neglected  in  Protestant 

pulpit,  327. 
Impenitent,  death  of  the,  412;  treatment  of  the,  565;  preaching  to  the,  569. 
Inferences,  of  sermon,  rules  for,  182. 

Inquirer,  treatment  of  the,  570 ;  discrimination  in  the  treatment  of  the,  586. 
Insight,  spiritual,  needed  by  the  preacher,  13. 
Introduction,  of  sermon,  best  methods  of,  118;  definition  of,  121;  necessity 

of,  122 ;  objects  to  be  gained  by,  122 ;  qualities  of  a  good,  125 ;  an  ornate, 

commended  by  Cicero,  126 ;  cross  of  preachers,  131. 
Invention,  definition  of,  271 ;  sources  of,  271 ;  sign  of  the  true  artist,  291. 
Irving,  Edward,  61;  how  he  regarded  the  Bible,  105;  his  imagination,  265; 

on  the  teaching-quality  of  ministers,  507. 

James,  John  Angell,  51. 

Jay,  William,  61. 

Jerome,  quoted,  39,  40. 

John,  the  apostle,  his  Christology,  362. 

Kidde#on  sources  of  divisions,  158. 
Knowledge,  before  faith,  576. 
Knox,  John,  46. 

Landor,  W.  S.,  on  language,  230. 

Language,  the  study  of,  228 ;  a  manifestation  of  the  soul,  229 ;  study  of,  essen- 
tial to  the  preacher,  230 ;  of  Dr.  Bushnell,  231 ;  sources  of,  in  English 
literature  and  philology,  235. 

Latimer,  44 ;  his  preaching,  224. 

Latin,  the  study  of,  443. 

Law,  preaching  of  the,  569. 

Lay  preaching,  11,  410. 

Leighton,  Archbishop,  his  conversation,  309 ;  as  an  interpreter  of  the  word,  434. 


616  IjStdex. 

Liturgy,  483 ;  use  of  a,  494. 

Lord's  supper,  the  highest  act  of  public  worship,  488. 

Love,  in  the  care  of  souls,  540. 

Luther,  his  preaching,  42;  against  long  sermons,  77;  his  imagination,  265; 
the  conclusions  of  his  sermons,  188 ;  unique  cause  of  his  effectiveness 
as  a  preacher,  331 ;  views  of  a  call  to  the  Christian  ministry,  391. 

Manners,  ministerial,  467,  468. 

Marriage,  as  a  Christian  ordinance,  527. 

Marsh,  on  the  English  language,  235,  236,  238,  244 ;  on  the  language  of 
Shakspeare,  240. 

Mason,  Dr.  J.  M.,  52 ;  remarks  on  expository  preaching,  163 ;  his  imagina- 
tion, 265. 

Massillon,  his  preaching,  47 ;  introduction  to  a  sermon,  130 ;  quotation  from, 
374 ;  view  of  a  call  to  the  ministry,  393. 

Maurice,  F.  D.,  quoted,  18,  521. 

Maury,  Abbe,  remark  of,  142. 

Meditation,  religious,  426. 

Melanchthon,  quoted,  451. 

Melville,  Henry,  51 ;  on  God's  way  in  the  sanctuary,  506. 

Mestrezat,  Jean,  46. 

Metaphor,  use  of  the,  325. 

Metaphysics,  the  use  of,  to  the  preacher,  9. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  on  the  classic  writers,  300. 

Minister,  the  Christian,  greatness  of  his  work,  1. 

Ministry,  the  scriptural  term  of,  375 ;  call  to  the,  390. 

Miracles,  the  gift  of,  360,  361. 

Missions,  the  work  of,  604;  theory  of  Christian,  605;  ground  of  hope  in, 
607 ;  pastoral  responsibility  in  relation  to,  608. 

Morality,  Christian,  as  a  subject  for  preaching,  285 ;  not  to  be  confounded 
with  natural  virtue,  286. 

Moulin,  Pierre  du,  46,  47. 

Milller,  Max,  quoted,  232. 

MuUois,  on  preaching,  14S ;  on  the  mode  of  addressing  men,  458 ;  on  cleri- 
cal relations  to  the  people,  459.  % 

Music,  church,  511. 

Nature,  an  element  needed  in  preaching,  328. 

Neal,  his  history  of  the  Puritans  quoted,  494. 

Nearfder,  on  the  life  of  Chrysostom,  3 ;  on  the  theologian,  12 ;  on  the  early 
preachers,  34;  on  Chrysostom  as  a  preacher,  36,200;  on  the  sermon 
on  the  mount,  356 ;  on  the  office  of  evangelist,  363 ;  on  the  teacher,  369 ; 
on  Christ  as  a  teacher,  387 ;  on  ordination,  406. 

Newman,  F.  W.,  quoted,  286. 

Newton,  John,  50. 

Nicholas,  of  Basle,  42. 

Noel,  Baptist,  51. 


INDEX.  617 

Oberlin,  as  a  pastor,  15. 

Office,  the  pastoral,  341 ;  founded  in  nature,  341 ;  not  to  be  destroyed  by 
levelling  tendencies  in  society,  346 ;  divine  institution  of,  348 ;  outward 
form  of,  loft  to  the  church,  376 ;  idea  of  the,  377 ;  not  a  sacerdotal  caste, 
377 ;  not  a  priesthood,  379 ;  not  a  mere  temporary  secular  relation,  382 ; 
true  idea  of,  384. 

Oratory,  how  far  it  can  express  beauty,  263;  requires  the  direct  stylfe,  323. 

Ordination,  definition  of,  406 ;  congregational  idea  of,  407 ;  decline  in  prac- 
tice of,  an  evil,  409. 

Origen,  first  introduced  the  regular  sermon,  30. 

Originality,  how  violated,  275 ;  in  what  it  consists,  277. 

Ornament,  in  writing,  334. 

Owen,  on  the  interpretation  of  the  word,  433. 

Paniel,  on  Chrysostom's  sermons,  38. 

Pastor,  oflSce  of  the,  367 ;  authority  of  the,  368 ;  model  of  the,  385 ;  trials 
and  rewards  of  the,  410;  his  domestic  and  social  relations,  459;  in  his 
social  intercourse,  465 ;  his  public  relations,  476 ;  labors  of  the,  value  of, 
532,  533 ;  his  office  a  work,  538 ;  his  treatment  of  the  inquirer,  584 ;  his 
relations  to  the  church,  593,  598. 

Pathos,  speaks  in  Anglo-Saxon,  238 ;  how  produced,  328. 

Paul,  the  apostle,  his  preaching,  28  ;  his  use  of  the  principle  of  adaptation, 
204;  as  a  reasoner,  219;  imaginative  element  in  his  preaching,  259;  his 
courtesy,  467 ;  his  truthfulness,  473. 

Payson,  Dr.,  55. 

Pericles,  style  of  his  eloquence,  330. 

Persuasion,  motives  of,  171. 

Philology,  English,  237 ;  study  of,  442. 

Plato,  his  idea  of  rhetoric,  193 ;  the  study  of,  443. 

Politics,  preaching  of,  287. 

Poor,  obligations  of  the  church  to  the,  604. 

Prayer,  432 ;  of  the  sanctuary,  508 ;  with  the  inquirer,  586. 

Prayer  meeting,  conduct  of  a,  519. 

Preacher,  the  source  of  his  authority,  5;  the  champion  of  public  morals,  15; 
his  distinction  from  the  platform  speaker,  204. 

Preaching,  definition  of,  23 ;  history  of,  25 ;  of  the  primitive  church,  28 ;  of 
the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  centuries,  30 ;  from  the  seventh  century  to  the 
Keformation,  40;  of  the  Reformation,  42;  object  and  design  of,  56; 
difficulties  of,  59 ;  faults  of,  61 ;  sensational,  62 ;  expository,  161 ;  his- 
torical, 164;  argumentative,  165;  persuasive,  170;  foolishness  of,  its 
true  sense,  204 ;  of  Nathan  to  David,  204 ;  not  dispensing  with  aid  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  206;  doctrinal,  219;  political,  287;  as  worship,  484. 

Presbyter,  office  of,  370. 

Prescott,  William  H.,  his  study  of  English  grammar,  298. 

Pronunciation,  252. 

52* 


618  INDEX. 

Prophet,  of  the  Old  Testament,  26 ;  of  the  New  Testament,  357 ;  an  extraor- 
dinary office  in  the  church,  357. 

Proposition,  of  a  sermon,  143 ;  place  of  the,  144 ;  significance  and  impor- 
tance of  the,  145  ;  substance  and  matter  of  the,  147 ;  structure  and  quali- 
ties of  the,  148. 

Providence,  events  of,  as  leading  to  the  ministry,  402. 

Prudence,  ministerial,  456. 

Puritans,  preaching  of  the,  48  ;  true  to  freedom,  288. 

Qualifications,  spiritual,  of  the  pastor,  423;  for  the  care  of  souls,  531. 

Quintilian,  his  definition  of  an  exordium,  122 ;  on  the  method  of  definition, 
141 ;  on  the  weakening  effect  of  divisions  in  a  discourse,  160 ;  his  idea  of 
rhetoric,  195;  his  opinion  of  the  use  of  learning  to  the  orator,  203;  on 
imitation,  210;  on  delivery,  250;  on  invention,  272;  on  the  importance 
of  the  study  of  grammar,  297 ;  on  ornament  in  style,  334. 

Heading,  to  nourish  spirituality,  430. 

Reasoning,  uses  of,  to  a  preacher,  212 ;  cautions  in  the  use  of,  225. 

Eecapitulation,  180. 

Eedemption,  the  great  theme  of  preaching,  284. 

Reform,  preaching  on,  288. 

Reformation,  preaching  of  the,  44. 

Reinhard,  his  preference  of  memoriter  preaching,  72 ;  theme  of  a  sermon 
by,  149. 

Revivals,  570. 

Rewards,  of  the  pastor,  418. 

Rhetoric,  definition  of,  191;  derivation  of,  192;  ancient  ideas  of,  192;  mod- 
ern ideas  of,  195 ;  uses  of,  206 ;  sources  of,  209. 

Robertson,  F.  W.,  61;  an  extempore  preacher,  78;  the  introductions  of  his 
sermons,  120;  quotation  from,  389;  his  method  of  study,  447. 

Robinson,  John,  quotation  from,  697. 

Ruskin,  quoted,  62,  257,  270. 

Sanctuary,  warship  of  the,  499. 

Saurin,  Jacques,  his  preaching,  45 ;  the  introductions  of  his  sermons,  119. 

Sceptic,  treatment  of  the,  566. 

Schaff,  Dr.,  quoted,  29,  39,  362. 

Schleiermacher,  45  ;  his  preaching,  78,  82 ;  his  theory  of  a  Christian  congre- 
gation, 505. 

Schiller,  quoted,  259. 

Schott,  his  view  of  the  design  of  preaching,  58 ;  definition  of  an  exordium, 
122. 

Science,  not  an  exclusive  theme  of  the  pulpit,  280 ;  no  real  conflict  between 
theology  and,  566. 

Scott,  Thomas,  50. 

Scriptures,  reading  the,  431. 


INDEX.  619 

Self-denial,  453. 

Sermon,  clefinifion  of,  24 ;  method  of  composing  a,  65 ;  true  idea  of  a,  76 ; 
argumentative,  as  fitted  for  a  young  preacher,  91;  moral-descriptive, 
92 ;  textual,  92 ;  analysis  of  a,  93 ;  meditative,  145 ;  ideal  of  a,  176 ; 
modern,  wanting  in  point,  304. 

Sermons,  classification  of,  according  to  method  of  delivery,  70;  memoriter, 
70 ;  written,  72 ;  extempore,  77 ;  classification  of,  according  to  method 
of  treatment,  90. 

Shakspeare,  the  study  of,  237 ;  language  of,  239 ;  metaphorical  element  in 
his  language,  241. 

Shedd,  Dr.,  quoted,  67.    - 

Shepard,  Dr.,  on  written  sermons,  73. 

Sherlock,  Dean,  50. 

Sick,  care  of  the,  554. 

Simeon,  Charles,  50. 

Simile,  use  of  the,  326. 

Sin,  has  no  restorative  power  in  itself,  578. 

Singing,  congregational,  514. 

Skinner,  Dr.,  on  the  delivery  of  a  sermon,  255;  on  preaching  as  a  spiritual 
work,  435. 

Smith,  Henry,  the  Puritan  preacher,  48. 

Smith,  Rev.  Sydney,  quoted,  267. 

Souls,  the  care  of,  531 ;  qualifications  for  the  care  of,  531 ;  the  love  of,  539. 

South,  Robert,  on  divinity,  7;  on  an  unlearned  ministry,  10;  his  preaching, 
49;  the  introductions  of  his  sermons,  119;  on  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  492. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  on  style,  322,  326. 

Stillingfleet,  50;  on  the  apostolical  succession,  354. 

Style,  definition  of,  291;  invariable  properties  of,  292;  euphony,  293;  har- 
mony, 295 ;  of  ancient  classic  writers,  300 ;  individuality  of,  302 ;  purity, 
305;  propriety,  311;  precision,  312;  perspicuity,  316 ;  energy,  319;  ele- 
gance, 333. 

Subject,  qualities  of  the  true,  274. 

Suso,  Henry,  42. 

Taste,  in  preaching,  256 ;  principles  of,  266. 

Tauler,  John,  42. 

Taylor,  Jeremy,  his  preaching,  49 ;  his  imagination,  265 ;  on  religious  medi- 
tation, 426,  427 ;  on  a  Christian  burial,  530. 

Teacher,  the  New  Testament  office  of,  368. 

Text,  authority  for  the  use  of,  94;  historical  use  of,  95;  objections  to  the  use 
of,  95 ;  design  and  advantages  of,  98 ;  principles  to  guide  in  the  choice 
of,  100;  the  accommodated,  112;  the  motto,  114;  the  fruitful,  116; 
should  be  chosen  before  thesubject,  117. 

Theology,  in  the  pulpit,  282;  preaching  upon  natural,  284;  the  study  of,  441. 

Theology,  pastoral,  definition  of,  341. 


620  INDEX. 

Theremin,  opposed  to  long  introductions,  127;  his  idea  of  rhetoric,  198;  on 

beauty  in  oratory,  263. 
Tholuck,  quoted,  13;  represents  the  modern  German  pulpit,  45. 
Tillotson,  50;  established  the  method  of  written  sermons,  72. 
Tongues,  the  gift  of,  3G0. 
Trials,  of  the  ministry,  410. 
Trope,  the,  325. 
Truth,  Christian,  the  true  subject  of  preaching,  279 ;  analyzed,  279. 

Unbelieving,  treatment  of  the,  665. 

Vinet,  his  definition  of  homiletics,  24 ;  his  definition  of  a  sermon,  24 ;  re- 
mark on  Saurin,  45 ;  on  the  French  Protestant  pulpit,  46 ;  on  the  moral, 
element  in  preaching,  55 ;  analj'sis  of  a  sermon,  94 ;  on  definition,  142 ; 
on  the  vital  quality  of  true  preaching,  190;  regards  eloquence  as  belong- 
ing to  character,  202 ;  on  order  in  discourse,  217 ;  on  conciseness  in  style, 
313 ;  on  antithesis,  324 ;  on  the  disregard  of  the  imagination  in  the  Prot- 
estant pulpit,  327 ;  his  idea  of  the  ministry,  384 ;  his  view  of  a  call  to  the 
ministry,  393,  394;  on  ministerial  consecration,  411;  on  religious  medi- 
tation, 429;  remarks  on  prayer,  433;  on  public  worship,  491,  511;  on 
the  pastoral  work,  536. 

Visiting,  pastoral,  542 ;  Dr.  Wayland's  idea  of,  542 ;  uses  of,  543 ;  sugges- 
tions in  regard  to,  548. 

Voice,  treatment  of  the,  247 ;  power  of  the,  252. 

Ward,  Nathaniel,  52. 

Watts,  Dr.,  50. 

Wayland,  Dr.,  a  logical  preacher,  227;  his  mode  of  accomplishing  results, 
447 ;  advice  to  young  ministers,  532 ;  on  pastoral  visiting,  542,  546. 

Webster,  Daniel,  his  tribute  to  the  ministry,  14;  his  style  of  speaking,  246. 

Wesley,  John,  65 ;  his  preaching,  331 ;  his  view  of  ordination,  409 ;  letter  on 
ministerial  study,  439 ;  on  ministerial  manners,  467. 

Whately,  Archbishop,  on  the  character  of  a  sermon,  134 ;  definition  of  a  prop- 
osition, 143 ;  his  idea  of  rhetoric,  197,  208 ;  decries  the  study  of  emphasis, 
253 ;  on  scriptural  omissions,  376 ;  on  the  apostolical  succession,  354. 

Whitefield,  his  preaching,  50 ;  his  imagination,  265. 

Whitney,  Professor  W.  D.,  regards  language  as  a  moral  science,  230. 

Wickliife,  42. 

Williams,  Eoger,  52. 

Worship,  public,  theory  and  form  of,  482;  essential  principles  of,  489. 

Xavier,  St.  Francis,  reference  to,  360. 

Young,  John,  his  "  Christ  of  History"  referred  to,  223;  quoted,  280. 

Zincke,  F.  B.,  on  extemporaneous  preaching,  84. 


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